NOTICE OF MEETINGS AND STRIKE VOTE June 10th 2013
TEAM MEMO
To: All Employees in TEAM’s Jurisdiction (Certification Order Number 8516-U)
From: TEAM Office
Date: June 10, 2013
Re: NOTICE OF MEETINGS AND STRIKE VOTE
We have three days of conciliation scheduled for July 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, after which we have just 13 days remaining before MTS carries out its threat to terminate our Collective Agreement, at which time MTS may arbitrarily and unilaterally change our working conditions.
This is the third time that MTS has held this particular threat over our heads, they did it in 2007 and in 2010, and again in 2013. We believe that the Company exclusively threatens to terminate our Collective Agreement, and consistently offers TEAM less than its other bargaining units because it sees us as weak, scared, and unwilling and unable to fight for a fair deal. We must change this perception! We must demonstrate to the Company that we are serious in wanting a reasonable salary increase and that working conditions and benefits are important to us. It’s what helps to make MTS a better place to work. We want a settlement that recognizes our hard work and sacrifice for MTS and cannot allow ourselves to be the group always targeted to take one for the Company.
We have to go back to the table with a strong mandate, a strike mandate, to achieve a better deal. Having a strike mandate worked for IBEW.
Authorizing a strike does not mean there will definitely be a strike. TEAM does not want to call a strike. We need a strike mandate to allow us to take even the most limited forms of job action. A strong strike mandate sends a powerful message to the Company. Many professionals have found it necessary to pursue this course, it might be a first for TEAM, but it’s nothing new for professionals like us.
We want to send the message to the Company that we will not settle for less than other employees in MTS, we will not settle for the constant threat of termination of our agreement, we will not settle for concessions that no one else is willing to give, we will not settle for a workplace further divided against itself with new employees constantly required to take less, and we will not settle for anything less than a fair and equitable agreement.
Notice of Strike Vote
The vote will be by secret ballot
Date, Time and Place of Voting:
Winnipeg: Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Fairmont Hotel, Midway Ballroom
2 Lombard Place, Winnipeg
11:30am – 12:30pm and 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Masonic Memorial Temple
420 Corydon Ave, Winnipeg
12:00pm – 1:00pm
Note: Members in Winnipeg unable to attend the meetings can vote on business days at the TEAM office 200-1 Wesley Ave, 9:00am – 4:00pm, June 19- 27, or, contact the returning officer to make arrangements for a ballot.
Brandon: Thursday, June 20, 2013
Royal Oak Inn and Suites, Wellington Room
3130 Victoria Ave, Brandon
4:30pm – 5:30pm
Note: Members in Brandon unable to attend the meeting can contact the returning officer to make arrangements for a ballot.
Regions: Ballots will be mailed. Mailed ballots must be received in the office by
4pm Thursday, June 27, 2013.
Ballots will be counted at noon Friday, June 28, 2013. The results will be determined by a simple majority of eligible employees who vote.
Eligible Voters: Any employee of MTS Inc. in the TEAM-IFPTE Local 161 Bargaining Unit.
The Question on the Ballot will be similar to the following: “Do you authorize TEAM-IFPTE Local 161 to take strike action up to and including a complete withdrawal of labour? Yes/No”
Returning Officer:
Susan Bilyk, Past President, Telecommunication Retirees Association of Manitoba
204-792-3926
[email protected]
TEAM-IFPTE Local 161
204-984-9470 or 1-877-984-9470
[email protected]
www.teamunion.mb.ca
twitter.com/teamunion161
facebook.com/teamunion161
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