President's Message

June 6, 2023
(as reported at the 6/6/2023 General Membership Meeting)

Good evening,

I will keep this short. The Coalition of Edmonton Unions meet on a regular basis to discuss issues and share information. We are currently creating a couple of Coalition sub-committees, one an LTD committee composed of two persons from each Union, to share info and to meet with our Long term disability provider and administrator as a unified group. We have been concerned about the management of the plan, particularly the rising costs to our membership. The Coalition is also setting up a committee around bargaining so as to identify common issues and process.

CSU 52 continues to have a number of issues at the Alberta Labour Relations Board, a couple of unfair labour practices against the City of Edmonton, a jurisdiction review being overviewed by the Board and the jurisdiction application regarding Fort Edmonton. Also, we currently are engaged in a long running dispute around the Intellectual Disabilities program. This issue has been in dispute for approximately six years with a Human Rights Tribunal hearing set for early July and scheduled for eight days. We are hopeful the issue can be resolved prior to the hearing.

I have had a number of calls from members in our City bargaining unit wondering why we have not been able to reach agreement at the bargaining table while both ATU and CUPE Local 30 have reached agreement. My answer to them and to the membership is if you want 0%, 1 and 2% on a three-year deal as both other Unions have settled for I can get that for you tomorrow. Up to now my understanding has been that a zero was not acceptable to our membership and the one and two were not sufficient in this economy. If that has changed, please don’t hesitate to inform us. In the meantime, bargaining at EPL and Telus World of Science Edmonton continue.

We recently had an Administrative Assistant resign to take a Federal Government position. Celina Girard is wished all the best in her new role, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Celina for all she contributed to our office and to our membership while employed by CSU 52. I have asked our hiring committee to post the vacancy as soon as possible.

I would also like to inform our membership of the recent hiring of Kathy Beck to an LRO position. Kathy has extensive experience as a Labour Resources officer and will be tasked mostly with classification and jurisdiction work.

You may have noticed our PR campaign began last Saturday with a full-page wrap in the Edmonton Journal, an electronic bulletin board, and a number of other media and social platforms.

Thank you, stayed tuned for updates over what is looking like a very busy summer.

Sincerely,
Lanny Chudyk