On Monday June 1^st L207’s executive met with executive members from Peel EMS L277 and Guelph-Wellington EMS. The goal was to review our respective current collective agreements and find common goals that all three services hope to achieve at the next round of negotiations. Guelph is currently in contract talks with us heading there @ the end of December 2009 and Peel beginning in April of 2010. Wages were on par with each other but it was very obvious the Halton is far behind the others with respect to benefits. It is something that will have to be addressed. We asked each service to come on board with our refusal to take college students. We asked that they take the idea back to their memberships for discussion. It is the only way we believe that we will be able to negotiate compensation for PCP preceptors to be on par with ACP preceptors. We anticipate having demand set meetings this coming month of September. 

On May 26^th and 28^th management held staff meetings. At the meetings it was stressed that it is OUR responsibility to complete a circle check of the vehicle prior to putting it in service. You cannot refuse a code 3/4 call if assigned. However, if you receive a code 8 prior to completing your check you should contact an operational supervisor (not platoon leader) immediately. If one is not available then contact the on-duty manager. If you find any serious damage to the vehicle or undercarriage, extremely low tire pressures or fluid levels that in your opinion could cause a safety concern then you should contact CACC, take it out of service and report it immediately to the operations supervisor. Minor damage should be recorded on your OAR and reported when possible. The manager of fleet maintenance stated quite clearly that it is for our own H&S to ensure that this is followed. If any member accidentally causes damage to a vehicle during the course of your shift it is imperative that you report this ASAP to an operations supervisor. 

On Monday May 11 the executive met for a step 2 grievance with management and representatives from HR. A policy grievance on the distribution of OT was submitted to the director of HR. It is the union’s position that management is not distributing OT in a fair and equitable manner. We believe that have that right under article 19.09 of the collective agreement. This grievance has been denied @ step 2 and will now proceed to arbitration.

The executive would like to hear from any member who feels that they were not fairly offered OT. All F/T members are entitled to OT prior to P/T and contract workers being given extra hours. If you feel that this has affected you with respect to OT then again we would like to hear from you.

Any concerns can be directed to any member of the executive.

Thank you for your ongoing support and solidarity,

OPSEU Executive L207