Please mark your calendar to attend a Special Meeting for all Y023 Members to discuss and vote on matters that will impact the future of our local. This meeting will be held to consider the potential merger of YEU/PSAC Locals Y022, Whitehorse Transit and Y023 City of Whitehorse.
At a recent AGM for Y022, Transit employees voted in favour of a merger with Y023 for ease of Local administration. You may recall that the two locals have presented this to the employer at the last 2 bargaining rounds. The employer has refused, stating that they want to keep the Collective Agreements separate.
However, this does not preclude the 2 Locals from joining under the Yukon Employees Union. Several of the smaller locals in Yukon communities have done this, as they found they were dealing with the same issues in a geographic location, and the same challenges in Local administration.
This will be explained in depth at the meeting, but here are a few highlights:
The administration of the Locals would merge, and a new set of Bylaws would be developed to manage our new reality (ie. Y022 and Y023 now become Y075).
The distinct language in each Collective Agreement would be maintained, and any changes would need to be negotiated in the next bargaining rounds. In a sense, we would have a larger combined Collective Agreement, where issues of unique departments and work groups are reflected in issue-specific negotiated articles, similar to the Yukon Government's Collective Agreements covering large and diverse workforce.
Under YEU and within PSAC, our local would be entitled to Convention delegates and dues based on the total number of members in the new, merged local. We would have a combined Local Executive and our Shop Stewards would support the new combined local.
In the last few months, our Y023 Shop Stewards and Local Executive have been approached to help or represent Y022 Transit employees when they needed union representation or support. It was important for us to respond as we care for the well being of all members in our workforce for the City of Whitehorse.
Please plan to attend the Special General Meeting for Y023 on April 22 at 5pm to discuss the merger of Y022 and Y023 Locals.
Sincerely,
Teresa Acheson
President, Local Y023
YEU/PSAC Local Y023 - City of Whitehorse
http://www.yeu.ca/