It was a long, hard road to travel. However, Agriculture Union members employed by the Canada Food Inspection Agency finally have a tentative collective agreement.
If ratified by bargaining unit members, the new four-year contract will run until December 31, 2018.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada, our bargaining agent, announced that after many difficult months of negotiations it was “confident” in presenting the deal to CFIA members for a vote.
While the precise terms of the tentative contract have yet to be made public, they include a wage increase of 1.25 %, 1.25%, 1.25 %, 1.25 % over four years, plus a signing bonus of $650.
Other Improvements to the collective agreement include
- Improved definition of “family”
- Better protection against workplace discrimination
- Improved leave for family-related responsibilities
- Enhanced bereavement leave
- Framework for the establishment of a Joint Learning Program pilot project
- Improvements to FI group provisions
- Improvements to retention allowances for Compensation Advisors
Most impressively, our bargaining team was able to resist all concessions sought by CFIA management, including attempts to undermine provisions affecting hours of work and sick leave. So, kudos to our bargaining team (in alphabetical order): Eryn Butterfield; Rick Cormier; Richard Hilson; Terri Lee; Randy Olynyk; Marlene O’Neil; Jacques Rousseau and Karen Zoller.
Thanks for your hard work and great results!