Goderich, Ontario
Brothers:
The main topic I want to discuss is the Relationship by Objectives (RBO) process that the Union and Management have agreed to participate in. The RBO is a joint Union/Management process in which the conduct and behaviours that contribute to a negative relationship are discussed and resolved jointly through shared objectives and action plans. The main objective is to improve the relationship between the unionized workforce and management. The RBO involves two committees, one from management and one made up of unionized employees. But how did we get here and why is the Union participating in this RBO?
The Union/Management relationship has never been the greatest and since we returned from an eight week strike in 2006 the relationship has deteriorated even further. The on-site management's mantra was "go file a grievance". There was no desire to resolve issues. And so we filed grievances. After returning to work after being on strike in June till the end of 2006 the Union filed forty-one complaints and grievances, followed by another forty-six leading up to July 27, 2007. We did not have much success resolving the grievances and the Union Executive's frustration grew along with the pile of unresolved issues. As a Local we had also suffered through one of the largest and longest lay-offs we had ever experienced and the work-site was over-run with contractors. The Executive knew we had to act and do something to invoke change at the Mine-site.
The executive decided to solicit help from our National Union and Compass Mineral's head office. A letter, signed by the Local 16-O executive explaining the major issues and concerns of the unionized workforce at the Goderich Mine and asking for assistance was sent to Mr. Angelo Brisimitzakis the C.E.O. and President of Compass Minerals as well as representatives of our National Union.
The result was a meeting held in Toronto on September 26, 2007. This meeting was attended by representatives from Compass Minerals head office, on-site Sifto Management, Local 16-O Executive and representatives from our C.E.P. National. The outcome of this meeting was both parties agreeing that it was important to improve the current Union/Management relationship. It was decided that we would utilize the services of a third party facilitator or mediator to help develop an action plan to deal with our issues. It was agreed that the National Union representatives would find and recommend the mediators.
We followed up the Toronto meeting with a two-day session in Kitchener in November. Mr. Vic Pathe of Pathe Gardner & Associates facilitated these meetings. Vic listened to both Union and Management concerns and he talked about the services his company offered. At the end of two days it was agreed to retain their services and to move ahead with a Workplace Relations and Assessment Program (WRAP). This involved interviewing a cross section of both Union and Management employees at the Goderich Mine. The interviews would be conducted by representatives of Pathe Gardner & Associates and the information gathered would give them insight into the key issues affecting our workplace. It was also agreed to set up a joint Union/Management committee to help plan and facilitate the WRAP interviews and the RBO process. The committee consisted of Pierre Paquette, Fred Grandmaison, Jim Vance and myself.
A notice and sign-up sheet was posted looking for volunteers for the WRAP interviews. A cross section of twenty-five unionized and fifteen staff employees were selected for the interviews. They were conducted on site from January 22nd to 25th of this year.
The Union formed a committee to attend the RBO made up of twelve of our members. The Committee included the Executive as well as members from the Workplace Relations and Assessment sign-up sheet. Union members are Lionel Carter, Mark Bellinger, Lance Greer Jr., Tom Miller, Barron Purser, Al Robb, Jim Vance, Lawrence Lassaline, Jason Million, Don Rivera, Doug Ritchie and Colin Chisholm.
The information that was gathered from the WRAP interviews was analyzed and presented to the committees at the RBO held in Grand Bend from April 21st to April 24th. The results of the RBO will be presented to the entire workforce beginning June 9th. One of the first action plans that was to be implemented as a result of the RBO was the formation of an alternate shift sub-committee. This is a joint committee including both management and unionized employees. The union's committee members are Lawrence Lassaline, Jason Million and Lance Greer Jr. The committees mandate is to explore shift schedules that will give our members more time off work including more weekends off. The committee's findings will then be presented to the union executive. The executive will then meet with management to see if any of the schedules can be pursued.
Another outcome of the RBO was the decision to have Jim Vance act as a co-ordinator for the Union RBO committee. Jim has been involved with the RBO process from the start and is on the RBO steering Committee. Jim will be in the union office for the next few weeks to help move the RBO action plans along. This gives Lionel and I time to focus on the day to day issues as they arise.
Another development is the Five Crew trial in the Underground and Surface Maintenance Departments. It was a long process getting to the trial but we believe the important roadblocks were addressed. A vote in each Department will be held near the end of the 10 week trial.
The Mining Department will be voting on the implementation of the Five Crew schedule for a limited number of jobs. Packages explaining the details of the Five Crew schedules will be distributed to all members of the Mining Department prior to the vote. After the vote has taken place in the Mining Department it is the intention of the Union to pursue alternate shift schedules for other areas of the Mining Department. I would like to stress to all those concerned members that any shift schedule that involves shifts of longer than eight hours must be approved by the Union. The Union includes all of us. Article 13.01 along with the Occupational Health and Safety Act Regulations for Mines and Mining Plants Article 9 section (4) makes it clear that the Union must approve schedules with shifts in excess of eight hours.
We are in the process of getting our web-site up and running. Not all the features are functional yet. At this point it has contacts of the Union executive, some links to other web-sites of interest and archived letters.
The last five Union meetings have been held at 3:30 and attendance has increased. We will continue to hold the general meetings at this time till the summer break. Once again with the RBO, the Five Crew vote in Mining and Maintenance and the Alternate Shift Schedule Committee there are a lot of rumours and fact-less information circulating the workforce. I encourage anyone that has questions or concerns to contact one of the executive members directly and we can deal with your concerns. With your support we believe we can all move forward and improve working conditions at the mine.
Five Crew Update
The vote to implement the 5-Crew Shift Schedule in the Surface and Underground Maintenance Departments was held with the vote passing in both departments. The vote for the Processing group in Mining was also held and the vote passed. We are now working on an alternate shift schedule for the rest of the Mining Department and hope to trial a new schedule soon.