À l'avant; Luc Chiasson, maire; Sandra Julien, présidente syndicale. À l'arrière; Julie Caron, directrice générale; Pierre Garneau, membre du comité de négociation et Robin Côté, conseiller syndical du SCFP. Photo SCFP
In the front: Mayor Luc Chiasson and union president Sandra Julien. In the rear: general director Julie Caron, bargaining committee member Pierre Garneau, and CUPE staff representative Robin Côté.
The 15 blue- and white-collar employees with the Municipality of Chambord in the administrative region of Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean have a new collective agreement, which was signed last October 11.

At a meeting last September 20, members unanimously ratified the tentative agreement their union reached with the municipality.

The five-year contract runs until December 31, 2025 and calls for annual wage hikes of 2.5% up to a maximum of 3.5% pegged to the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Non-monetary gains include the implementation of a 4½ day schedule and improvement to the wage scale which, going forward, stretches over three years instead of seven. Moreover, employees will receive duty premium increases along with two additional family leave days. There are 12 days of leave in total, all of which are paid.

Crossing guards will be getting four added professional development leave days.  All members will be able to convert their unused sick days to paid personal leave days.

The parties also negotiated the implementation of a telework policy, and several positions are now covered by the collective agreement.  From now on, library managers, school crossing guards, day camp personnel, students providing road maintenance services along with building and environment inspectors will be unionized.

“Meetings took place in a healthy and cordial environment. We were able to resolve the main irritants for members, particularly with respect to the accreditation certificate, by bringing in all personnel who had been previously excluded from the agreement,” said CUPE union representative Robin Côté.