The approximately 80 white-collar and blue-collar workers with the City of Amos finally have a collective agreement. Their previous agreement had expired in December 31, 2011; however, the wage clause had been renewed for the years 2012 to 2015. The texts of the normative clauses were revised for the entire collective agreement, which explains the length of the negotiation period. This new collective agreement covers the years 2016 to 2023.
Employees get wage increases averaging 2.44% for the years 2011 to 2019, with wage clauses to be negotiated for 2020 to 2023.
At the normative level, there have been several gains, including the following notable items: union leaves are increased from 25 to 30 days a year, accumulated banked hours have also been increased, floating days may be taken in hours rather than by the day or half day, and sick days can be taken in 30-minute increments and are payable at 100%.
Union members also got improvements to social benefits, team leader bonuses and retention bonuses.
According to CUPE representative Marjolaine Boutin, who is very satisfied with the agreement, the big change is in the area of group insurance. “The parties have agreed to meet to reach an agreement on adjustments to insurance protections in order to reduce the cost, but overall we believe that it’s a good agreement; 96% of the union members voted in favour of this agreement.”
With more than 110,000 members in Quebec, CUPE represents about 70% of the province’s municipal employees, or 31,600 members. CUPE is also active in the following sectors: health and social services, communications, education, universities, energy, government corporations and public agencies, urban and air transport, and the mixed sector.