Sept-Îles, Monday, June 9, 2014 – At a general meeting on Friday afternoon, the unionized white-collar and blue-collar employees of Sept-Îles unanimously rejected the City’s final global offer on the renewal of their collective agreement.
Following the failure of the first round of negotiations, the parties participated in a conciliation process to try to find common ground. But the outcome was unsuccessful.
“The employer was not willing to work with the conciliator. They did not move from their position. Maybe this vote will get their attention. The City needs to realize that our members consider their offers inadequate, and that the two unions are united and unanimous in their support for their bargaining committee,” jointly stated the president of the white collars, Nathalie Roussel (CUPE 1930), and Pascal Langlois, president of the blue collars (CUPE 2589).
In December 2013, both unions gave their committee a mandate to negotiate two key points: the sustainability of the pension plan and the percentage of salary increases.
“I firmly believe that there is still a possibility of reaching an agreement at the negotiating table. We are ready to sit down again and resume talks. But the real question: Is the employer ready?” asks the union representative for the file, Charlaine Sirois.
With more than 111,000 members in Quebec, CUPE represents about 70% of the province’s municipal employees, or 30,500 members. CUPE is also present in the following sectors: health and social services, communications, education, universities, energy, Quebec government corporations and public agencies, urban and air transport, and the mixed sector.