Canadian Union Questions?

code5

Well-Known Member
From what I read on Brown Cafe, it seems our Collective Agreement up here in Canada differs quit a bit from the States.

Ours basically focuses on trying to get as much hours as possible for the employees. I can see why a union would want this, but there really isn't anything in there for the employees that don't want the overtime.

My question, has anyone done much for greivances regarding OT? What is excess overtime and what is the determined amount of time you have to work for it? National labour law states we can refuse OT after 48 hours per week. Thats close to the 9.5 hours we hear our Americans co-workers speak of all the time, yet we have no 9.5 language in our contract.

Right now, our center has terrible management and the only way they can get all the packages delivered due to their bad dispatching or lack of it, or missort meets, intl air meets or returning to building for late trailers etc...long list - is to work the drivers longer. There is no pressure on them at all to manage the paid day.

The only rule seems to be to keep us under 12 which is foolish because that's a punchout time of 10 p.m. They flip flop regarding how long we can stay out for, over peak we were not supposed to be out past 9, now they are saying it isn't so.

I punch out between 8 and 9 with a break, but I know several new employees are out till 10 and they work through their break which isn't right.

Another question. We have a safety co-ordinator that is a full time driver. He is also our Union Stewart. If we have too many drivers they usually flip him into doing in center work, or in center work for morning and part time work for the rest of the day. He gets to follow drivers around all the time too, pointing out any safety violations he might see to management. He doesn't want overtime either and gets his guaranteed 8 without O.T. all the time, yet we are told we need to work a minimum of 9 hours. He gets all the benefits of a FT driver but isn't working for it, yet management seem to protect him and he is pretty selfish about it. He even has a flex start time. Our union rep, while frowns upon it seems to not really care either. We can greive regarding seniority for the right to OT, but not the right to not get OT.

There is virtually no greivances in our center for fear of harassment. Everyone wants an earlier punch out time, but fears it will result in an even later punch in time. I know we need to get tough and it will probably get worse before it gets better.

Does any Canadians have similar problems with how our Collective Agreement allows us to do this? No, I'm not union bashing, I just think the Agreement should have been worded better to represent all of its memebers a bit better.
 
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menotyou

bella amicizia
If your labour laws state you can refuse over 48 hours, then you don't need a grievance. You would file a complaint with the labour dep't.
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
The Union does not benefit from drivers working more than 8 hours.

It sounds as though your national labour law would supercede any contract law, which may be why there is no 9.5 language in your contract. Do you have the legal right under that law to punch out so as not to exceed the 48 hours? Has this issue been brought to the attention of your national labour board?

Your safety co-ordinator is getting preferential treatment which is unfair to the rest of you. Your Steward needs to step up and address this inequity.

DS mentioned that it is an automatic suspension if drivers in his center go over 12 hours. Do you have this in your centre?
 

menotyou

bella amicizia
I did a quick check on Google. Each Province has its own Labour Relations Board. That is who I would contact regarding your 48 hour issue. You can write a letter to your Union concerning the fact that the Steward/Safety Coordinator is not representing the membership by doing driver follows and reporting any violations to management. That is not the job of the Steward. If your local isn't interested, International certainly would be. Your Steward can lose more than just his Stewardship. He can lose his job.
 

code5

Well-Known Member
The Union does not benefit from drivers working more than 8 hours.

It sounds as though your national labour law would supercede any contract law, which may be why there is no 9.5 language in your contract. Do you have the legal right under that law to punch out so as not to exceed the 48 hours? Has this issue been brought to the attention of your national labour board?

Your safety co-ordinator is getting preferential treatment which is unfair to the rest of you. Your Steward needs to step up and address this inequity.

DS mentioned that it is an automatic suspension if drivers in his center go over 12 hours. Do you have this in your centre?

Yes, the union doesn't benefit for more than 8 hours work, but their intent is to protect full time jobs and I can understand that.

We can get suspended if we go over 12, but they have made it clear that missed is tolerable to stay under. 12 hours is a 10 p.m. punchout, to me is totally unacceptable for the employees and the customers.

The only way we can go to the labour board is from a dispute with the union. In fairness, no one has called management out on the 48 hour rule, but sounds like we would be within our right. Problem is thats not day to day, its per week. The only day we could do it is Friday.

Also, we don't fall under provincial law, its National Law. All shipping companies are like that. Our provincial law is actually 44 hours, not 48.

Like I said, I realize our biggest problem is not getting tough enouph with our managment. Its a different culture for us. None of us filed grievances regarding OT before because we had a driver sort and load and started at 7 instead of 9 and we had better management then. The latest we ever had to work was 7 p.m. because we could go code 5 if we were overdispatched, now code 5 is out of the question no matter what, so the earliest we can punch out is 7 p.m. We are just starting to learn how to be disgruntled employees! lol

By the way, presently they are saying we are overstaffed because no one is on holidays, so they ask a week ahead who wants days off with or without paid optionals. If we were all around 9 hours that would be acceptable, but the whole fleet has paid says between 10 and 12 hours. Your choice on the days off is to either get paid 0 hours or 10 to 12 hours. Our guaranteed 8 hours is a mere myth. We are never put in a situation to work less than 8 but get paid for it.
 

steward71

Well-Known Member
Sounds like 2 of our stewards not going to change unil you the memebers take action. Like Vote your BA out. We have two stewards here that have refused to take grievances and will agree with UPS. Our BA has been told about this many times and our by-laws say we can remove them with 2/3's of a signed petition. We did this but two months later they are back don't know how. Check your by-laws about this and see what they say. Some of the employees have filed with the National Labor. Check with your Labor Dept up there to see of they can help you with the issues of the steward.
 
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