Good evening GardaWorld YYC Members,

We regret to inform you that the key promise made during the campaign of seamless benefits from Green Shield is not going to occur. While we are working diligently with Green Shield to get the system set up, we have run in to a number of complications regarding privacy issues of sharing information from one plan to another plan.

Upon running in to this issue, we have made the request of CLAC to share the affected private information in your previous files so we could pick up benefits as planned. However, they informed us this afternoon that they will not comply with this request as their relationship has formally ceased.  

We take full responsibility for this critical error. This will come as little comfort to those who have health benefit needs in the next 7 to 10 business days. While your coverage will be retroactive to June 1^st, you will not have access to direct billing and the system to submit receipts for this period of time, and will only be available after system is online in 7 to 10 business days. You will be able to submit any receipts for any incurred costs during this period when the system is live. If you have chronic drugs we ask that you attempt to fill those prescriptions tomorrow either by calling your pharmacy or online. If you have urgent issues please reach out directly.

We also want to ensure you that those who campaigned on our behalf had no idea of this issue, and made this promise in full faith that we could deliver. They could no have foreseen this issue and we have let them down as well as yourself. Your frustration and anger is valid, but it should be directed at us as your union, not at individuals in the workplace.

We recognize that this is not the first impression anyone wanted and we want to ensure you that we will do everything in our power to make up for this error. We are sorry to every member and fully identify the severity of this error.

We will keep everyone updated on the timeline regarding the firm timeline when the system will be live.

Pension

Your final hourly pension contributions were be made to the CLAC plan on Saturday May 21. Following that date, your hourly pension contributions are held in trust until you select a new plan during upcoming negotiations. This payment will be reflected in June as per the CLAC email and from then you will have a 60 day window to decide whether to move your account balance or leave it within the CLAC plan. More information will follow on this topic.

Grievances

We continue to receive and act on grievances and we appreciate the support of the current stewards in this work. New grievances please connect with your local union president Tammy, contact below.

REMINDER:

Local Union & Service Representative

You have been assigned to Unifor Local 2002 and will work with National Representative Karen Caig to achieve your first collective agreement. Many of you will know that Unifor Local 2002 for their presence at YYC with our current membership.

Going forward you will be connecting with your local union will facilitate your grievances and take carriage of the previous CLAC grievances. Karen and Tammy will be in touch soon regarding a meeting and planned in-person visits.

Tammy Moore // President Unifor Local 2002 // [email protected] // 506-333-1858 // www.unifor2002.org

Karen Caig // Unifor National Representative (Bargaining & Servicing) // [email protected] // 780-235-2312

Nominations and Election for Bargaining Committee

We are looking forward to moving to bargaining as soon as possible, with this in mind we are opening the call for nominations for the five (5) Bargaining Committee positions.

To put forward the name of a co-worker or to put your own name forward please email [email protected] indicating that you wish to nominate for the position of bargaining committee member, and the member you wish to nominate or that you wish to stand for election yourself.

The nomination period is open Monday May 30 at 12:00 (Noon) MDT and will remain open until Friday June 3 at 12:00 (Noon) MDT. Voting will commence online from Tuesday June 7 at 12:00 (Noon) MDT and close on Friday June 10 at 12:00 (Noon) MDT.

Nominations and Election of Stewards

We also need to nominate stewards and we thank the previous stewards have assisted in the transition. We are opening the nomination for twenty-one (21) stewards.

To put forward the name of a co-worker or to put your own name forward please email [email protected] indicating that you wish to nomination for the position of steward, and the member you wish to nominate or that you wish to stand for election yourself.

The nomination period is open Monday May 30 at 12:00 (Noon) MDT and will remain open until Friday June 3 at 12:00 (Noon) MDT. Voting will commence online from Tuesday June 7 at 12:00 (Noon) MDT and close on Friday June 10 at 12:00 (Noon) MDT.

Terms for Bargaining Committee & Stewards, and Education

We wish to thank the CLAC stewards for continuing to assist the membership for their hard work and dedication.

For terms, the bargaining committee members will service until a collective agreement is successfully ratified. The stewards will serve until new elections are called for after the ratification of the collective agreement.

For education, this is a fundamental priority for Unifor. We will work with your newly elected representatives to get them the training they need to serve the membership.

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More communication to follow soon.

We’ll be in touch again soon regarding follow-up.

Bruce Fafard //Unifor National Representative // [email protected] // 587-341-0945

Justin Gniposky // Unifor National Representative // [email protected] // 416-275-6389