Union News

Fleet: Union Stewards Update

June 21, 2023

We have received 7 nominees for the 3 steward positions. 

• Jeff Bailey
• Stephen Beilstein
• Dustin Dzaman
• Leonard Farraway (declined nomination)
• Joshua Pavlovich
• Ervin Rembeci
• JanWillem Werdekker

Should you have any questions or concerns please contact Ric Pereira at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 416-522-7542. 

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Fleet: Union Stewards Update

June 16, 2023

As per your Collective Agreement, your union has the right to appoint or otherwise select 4 regular stewards and 1 chief steward.

At the membership meeting where we discussed the process for nominating and electing your negotiating committee, it was decided that negotiating committee members would become your stewards once the Collective Agreement was in place.

This is especially important for first agreements as negotiating committee members have first hand knowledge of the language and its intent within the agreement.

As a result, negotiating committee members Scott Johannes and Scott Spears have been appointed as stewards, leaving 3 vacancies to be filled.

If you are interested in becoming a steward, please register your interest using the form below by Tuesday June 20 at 3:00 pm.

If more than 3 individuals are interested, an election will take place.

If there are 3 or less interested, those individuals will be appointed as stewards.

Once 5 stewards are elected/appointed, these stewards will then elect a Chief Steward amongst themselves.

Should you have any questions or concerns please contact Ric Pereira at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 416-522-7542.

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Fleet: Tentative Memorandum of Agreement Reached

April 11, 2023

Following numerous sessions of bargaining, your union committee, consisting of members Scott Spears, Scott Johannes and Union Representative Dustin Magee, have reached a tentative memorandum of agreement (MOA) for a first collective agreement with your employer.  

A ratification vote has been scheduled for Sunday April 16, 2023 at 10:00 am – Copetown Community Centre, 1950 Governors Rd., (East of Highway 52) Copetown, ON 

The committee will present the MOA for your review with a ratification vote to follow.

Please plan to attend this important vote.

Note: Negotiations for the Plant are ongoing. We will update members once a tenetative agreement is reached for the Plant.

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November 26, 2022: 

As the employer continues to stand firm on their position to exclude workers from Waste Water in the bargaining unit, our legal counsel has been gathering information to assist us with our filing to include them at the Labour Board.
 
The employer has agreed to have Christina Traks represent the Waste Water workers on the union’s negotiating committee during bargaining.
 
We will continue our efforts during negotiations to have these workers included in the bargaining unit, while at the same time building the case at the labour board.
 
Union Representative Dustin Magee has secured the following dates for the union negotiating committees to meet in preparation of negotiations:

 
Fleet – Thursday, December 8
Plant – Thursday, December 15
 
The union will make the necessary requests of the employer for the committee members to have the respective day off with pay.
 
Committee members will be notified of the meeting location once it has been secured.
 
To learn more about the negotiations process, visit our Negotiations FAQ.

November 14, 2022:

Union Representative Dustin Magee will be the lead negotiator for your union’s committee for negotiations with your employer. Dustin is an experienced negotiator and has successfully secured a number of first union contracts. 

Ric Pereira will continue to be your union representative for workplace issues and will assist with negotiations as needed.

Dustin has reached out to your employer in an effort to secure negotiation dates in December. Our goal is to schedule a number of consecutive dates to advance the process as quickly as possible.

Once dates have been secured, Dustin will schedule a meeting with your committee members to discuss and review a first collective agreement draft proposal.

Your negotiating committees are as follows;

Fleet – Scott Spears & Scott Johannes
Plant - James Flowers, Jason Davies & Peter Traks (Christina Traks will act as support from Waste Water)

To learn more about the negotiations process, visit our Negotiations FAQ.

Darling Bargaining Committees

October 14, 2022:

Thank you all for participating in the nomination and election process for your respective negotiating committees.

And thank you to all those who accepted nomination for a position to be part of the process.

Your negotiating committees are as follows;

• Fleet – Scott Spears & Scott Johannes
• Plant - James Flowers, Jason Davies & Peeter Traks (Christina Traks will act as support from Waste Water)

The next step will be to reach out to the employer to secure a number of dates to begin bargaining.

As bargaining proposals have been submitted by you, a “first contract” will be drafted for review and discussion by the respective committees.

To learn more about the negotations process, visit our Negotiations FAQ.

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October 11, 2022: 

Our last update informed you that we would be conducting an election for the final position for the Plant negotiating committee.

One member from the Maintenance department would be elected, from 2 nominees, to join James Flowers and Jason Davies on the committee.

Since that message, one of the nominees from Maintenance has declined nomination.

As a result, Peeter Traks has been acclaimed to the position and will join James and Jason as your bargaining committee.

I will be reaching out to the employer to secure dates to begin bargaining.

As planned, we will conduct an online vote for the Fleet membership to elect 2 members from the 9 nominated. Fleet members will receive a text which will allow them to vote on Wednesday, October 12 at 1pm.

Again, thank you all who have participated in this process.

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October 7, 2022: 

As discussed at the membership meeting in September, your union was hoping to be able to negotiate the Plant and Fleet agreement together, with 6 members on the committee.

The membership had agreed that the committee would have representation as follows:

• Fleet – 2 members
• Plant – 2 members
• Maintenance – 1 member
• Waste Water – 1 member

In discussion with the employer, they are not willing to negotiate the Fleet and Plant together as the two groups were separately certified as two bargaining units.

The employer will also not recognize a member from Waste Water on the committee as these members were excluded from the bargaining unit. On a side note the union will be arguing at the labour board that these members should be included.

As a result, your union will negotiate the Fleet group and the Plant group separately.

For the Fleet group, 9 members were nominated for the negotiating committee. All those nominated have accepted their nomination.

We will conduct an online vote for the Fleet membership to elect 2 members from the 9 nominated. Fleet members will receive a text which will allow them to vote on Wednesday, October 12 at 1pm.

For the Plant group, we are now looking at 3 members with one of them representing the Maintenance group.

4 members were nominated from Maintenance. 2 of those nominees declined nomination, leaving 2 members on the ballot for 1 to be elected.

3 other members were nominated from the Plant, outside of Maintenance. One declined nomination and as a result, James Flowers and Jason Davies have been acclaimed to fill the 2 Plant positions on the committee.

We will conduct an online vote for the Plant membership to elect 1 member from the maintenance group. Plant members will receive a text which will allow them to vote on Wednesday, October 12 at 1pm.

One member, Christina Traks, from Waste Water was also nominated. Although she cannot participate formally during negotiations, she will be consulted to support and represent the members in her department throughout the process.

Thank you for your patience throughout this process and rest assured we are eager to begin negotiations on your behalf.

To learn more about the negotations process, visit our Negotiations FAQ.