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Bargaining in bad faith

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cmartin	Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 8:56 pm
Joined: 09 Feb 2006 Posts: 244	UFCW members at Loblaws Maplegrove are currently in contract talks with the company, and we don't really know too much about how things are going. Yesterday the company handed out a questionnaire to all employees asking for our thoughts on the state of the business through a series of multiple choice questions. Hidden amongst the rather benign questions on operational issues was a question that asked if we as employees think that we are paid fairly. I didn't think too much of it at first, but then me and a buddy started talking about how odd it was to have that 1 question included. We came to the conclusion that the whole damn questionnaire was probably just a smoke screen to get at that one answer. Could this be considered bargaining in bad faith by the company, or just a clever tactic to gauge what they might be able to get away with?
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Pearson	Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 1:49 am
Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 1417 Location: Sun City AZ	Absolutely inappropriate while you are in bargaining CM. Not that it matters, the company knows nothing will come of it. The union should stomp its feet and demand it stop, but so what? Here's the bigger issue, and one members should be up in arms about: Quote: UFCW members at Loblaws Maplegrove are currently in contract talks with the company, and we don't really know too much about how things are going. Sorry to say CM but that is a travesty on the unions part. Members have a RIGHT to know; its their contract, their future. Have you read the UFCW members manifesto CM? Do you agree? It's time for UFCW leaders to stop spewing platitudes about "you are the union" and start acting like they work for the members. Absolute 100% transparency, nothing less...its that simple. _________________ If we don't do it, who will?
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edelio	Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 3:42 am
Joined: 07 Feb 2006 Posts: 58 Location: hamilton	JUST WHEN I THINK I AM OUT,,,THEY PULL ME BACK IN AGAIN........ Well boyz and galz,, its time to bend over and dance the choreographied footsteps of the "UFCW\Loblaws contract negotiations." Does anybody honestly believe we will get a better deal than Erin Mills? No way in hell is B. Ried and the UFCW going to get us a better deal after they played the fiddle for the company during the last negotiations to the tune of a sub-standard contract. How about telling us once again about how Walmart is effcting our market share. You know what? I will stop the specifics of the rant and just say every last one of you sons of bitches at the UFCW can suck my bulbous, veined, bent to the right cock.You guys are a glorified, ineffectual bunch of "yes men" enjoying the just desserts of the trough off of our backs. You little pricks have ignored all of our suggestions and demandfs of the next contract. I can say that with full confidence of it being right because you little shits would have "let it leak" had there been anything of "our" interest included in the contract offers of the company thus far. I will state this right now, seeing as the dicusssion is started here,after a mere month or so working without a contract: we will not get any better of a deal than the Mill got.We all know it so stop fucking around, lets us have our 1st strike vote of 80+ percent followed by the 2nd "we will go 3rd party or else" 51% in favour of the shit deal vote. We all know the dance steps so lets get it over with. _________________ The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few......Spock
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Pearson	Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 1:36 pm
Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 1417 Location: Sun City AZ	How do you really feel E? Ya gotta learn to be more definitive; better able to let it out. Really, this burying your feelings is gonna hurt ya in the long run . I do want to hear from you guys working at Maple Grove about how you feel about the silence coming from negotiations. In Rogead's thread on UFCW's Memebers Manifesto one of the proposals is no secret negotitians; all talks to be transparent and open. Is that what you would expect as members? This idea that the only way the system can work is if it is done on the QT is biz unionism bullshit. Break down the system and then just maybe you'll have a chance. _________________ If we don't do it, who will?
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cmartin	Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 3:15 pm
Joined: 09 Feb 2006 Posts: 244	I e-mailed Brian Reid about the questionnaire and this was his response. Quote: Craig, I think the company will get their answer to that question soon enough. Having said that we put out questions to the members to get a read on what they want and need so I don’t think it is bargaining in bad faith for them to gage their employees. Nice to hear from you though. Brian. I suppose if Brian isn't concerned with the situation, the rest of us are just paranoid. The fact that our union will not share any info with us on how talks are going is a pain in the ass. I have only heard so far that the company wanted to offer a $2500 buy-out to Day 1 employees to give up their super seniority, which to those of you who have not followed the maplegrove story over the past 5 years was a deal that the UFCW and Loblaws made with the first 125 employees at maplegrove. The deal was that you got first pick of all the good jobs, and regardless of your seniority you could never be bumped out of that job, you would never get laid off unless everyone else was laid off first, and you would be the last one to get downgraded from your job if there was not enough work for you. There was also some talk around portability language that allows the company to move employees back and forth from DC to DC. The last time I talked to one of our negotiators, he said that money issues had not even been discussed yet, WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY WAITING FOR?
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wm pasz	Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2006 4:12 pm
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1219 Location: Toronto	Canvassing workers' views about whether they are paid fairly with negotiations looming is arguably bad faith in that it can be construed as an attempt to bargain directly with them, as opposed to bargaining with their union. It can also be an underhanded method of gathering information that can then be presented at the bargaining table as "proof" that the workers feel they are already paid fairly and further increases are not necessary or even desired. If the company is not known for surveying its workforce on some regular basis about issues like this, then the timing and content of the survey looks that much more suspicious. Surveys are dangerous tools. Few organizations do surveys just to find out what a group of people are thinking or how they're feeling. Surveys are often used to prove or support courses of action that the organization wants to take for its own benefit and to persuade opponents of the correctness of the course of action. Survey methods are often suspect and results csan be manipulated to paint a certain picture - regardless of what the respondents have actually said. This being the case, Reid's response is really ass_inine. But then again, may the Local leaders are in on the game so that when they present the crappy deal for ratification they can say, "Hey you guys told the company that you were paid fairly. How could we bargain you a wage increase after that?" D'ya think that's what they might have in mind? Would you have a copy of this survey cmartin? It would be really interesting to see the questions. I'll bet there's more than one ringer in there. _________________ Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else. - Malcolm X
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cmartin	Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2006 5:35 pm
Joined: 09 Feb 2006 Posts: 244	No I don't have a copy, sorry As it turns out the union is holding a meeting on tuesday to present us with the very good contract they have worked so hard to get for us I wonder what kind of show they have decided to put on for us, song and dance, or smoke and mirrors? STAY TUNED!
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