We have been made aware that your employer sent around a memo that contains some misleading information about unionizing and was clearly designed to scare you. It’s disappointing they chose this tactic instead of respecting your choice to democratically form a bargaining unit of your own in order to have a stronger voice for crossing guards. It’s also unfortunate that they saw this memo to be more important that informing you of school closures and how it is impacting your earnings.
One thing that is true is that it is illegal for your employer or anyone acting on their behalf to seek to sway your vote through threats, intimidation, coercion, or promises. If you observe actions that violate the rules by anyone, please let me or any of the CUPE Member Organizers that you have spoken to, know right away. Your employer could benefit from such illegal tactics because it might keep you from having a voice. CUPE has strong policies against such tactics because at the end of the day, a union is a group of people who have each other’s backs. You need to trust one another in order to have a good bargaining unit that can negotiate a strong collective agreement and protect crossing guards.
CUPE is a democratic union. You and your co-workers can form your own union local, elect your own local leadership and bargaining committee, and even set your own dues rate. Your elected bargaining committee works with your national staff representative to survey members in order to determine bargaining priorities. You can review and vote on the package they prepare to take to the bargaining table. Your elected members are always at the table with your CUPE National Staff Representative, and you vote on whether to accept any agreement reached at the bargaining table. Job action can only take place if you and your elected representatives decide it will, and if you decide it’s necessary, CUPE has a $95-million fund to support workers from day one.
Union Dues are typically about 1.5% of base wages and are fully tax-deductible. Dues are normally recouped through wage increases in the first year of a collective agreement and cannot be deducted until there is an agreement between your bargaining committee and the employer to do so. CUPE Dues are made up of two portions. There is a national portion that pays for your national staff representative and specialists including communications and research (both very important in bargaining), pay equity (very important in social services), health & safety, WSIB, equality, our team of Labour Lawyers, and more.
The national dues rate can only be changed by a vote of delegates to the national convention, and that hasn’t happened in more than 50 years. Local dues are set democratically by local members and pay for such things as the local portion of arbitration, meeting space if needed, and time for your elected local officials to work on your behalf.
Your employer is trying to scare you by talking about other fees, dues, or fines. None of those exist at CUPE. Simply put, it is an employer scare-mongering tactic. You can get more details by reading the CUPE Constitution (www.cupe.ca )
What can CUPE guarantee?
A union is not a business. It is a collective of workers. We are workers who have agreed to join forces in order to build a better life for our families and communities by having a stronger voice in our workplaces. Being a grassroots organization means there are rights and responsibilities for everyone, and we can guarantee there are opportunities for everyone to get involved.
We can guarantee excellent representation. We can guarantee your local access to our incredible education programs, which include about 100 courses and workshops on all aspects of stewarding, financial management, how to hold meetings, collective bargaining, bargaining equity and equality, and more.
We can guarantee you and your coworkers receive a fair and safe process for settling disputes between you/union and your employer. The law requires a grievance policy that can have a neutral third party make the final decision if the parties cannot agree. Your employer cannot refuse to include a grievance policy in the collective agreement.
We can guarantee just cause termination. Right now, your employer does not need a reason to fire you. Fighting your Employer without a Union is costly and timely. Your Employer knows this. After a successful vote, they can only terminate your employment with a valid cause, and we have an obligation by law to challenge an unjust termination as well as represent all our members.
We can guarantee they will not arbitrarily change your terms or conditions of work. The law prohibits them from doing so while we are all working together to negotiate a first collective agreement.
We can be confident that your wages and working conditions will only improve. We start our negotiations based on where you are now, and as a group that negotiates about 4000 collective agreements, we can say with confidence that we only move forward. Your employer will probably try to scare you by saying everything has to be negotiated, but that’s not exactly true.
We will also work towards getting successor rights notwithstanding which contractor ends up with the Toronto Crossing Guards contract in September/21. Because the City of Toronto ultimately controls who the successful sub-contractors are, and because CUPE has a longstanding relationship with the City of Toronto through other Collective Agreements, we have the ability to negotiate working stability on your behalf. This will be one of CUPE’s #1 goals!
Of course, there is so much more information that I can provide to you but for now it’s a lot of information for one email. I hope after having taken the time to read all of this and carefully consider it, we can count on your continued support and that you will also speak to any of your coworkers about the benefits of signing a CUPE card and supporting this important campaign.
Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. I’m here to help.
And please remember that all of this is about you and your co-workers standing together for a better life. In CUPE, the members in a workplace are in charge. You truly are your union!
Sincerely,
Daniela Scarpelli
National Representative
Canadian Union of Public Employees