A letter was sent to the Company to serve notice on LOU 35, the cost-of-living allowance, as it has increased exponentially and continues to climb.
The language of the Collective Agreement states:
L35.01 In conjunction with the effective date of the annualized uplifts agreed to by the parties and set out in Article 5 of the Collective Agreement, wage increases will be subject to further negotiations if:
- Other bargaining agents (ACPA, ALPA, CAW, IAMAW, or CALDA) have negotiated higher percentage wage uplifts effective before the expiry of the CUPE Collective Agreement;
or
- The consumer price index of the previous year exceeds the wage increases by more than one (1.0%) percent for any of the three (3) calendar years referenced in Article 5 of the Collective Agreement.
Note: In the event other bargaining units achieve a higher percentage increase as a result of demonstrable productivity or work rule changes, such will be taken into consideration should further negotiation on wages be required.
The Company has responded to our letter and requested that we provide our methodology for how we calculated the Consumer Price Index increase and the supporting data. We have since replied to their request to show how, in our opinion, that LOU 35 of the Collective Agreement was triggered. We are awaiting a response from the Company. As soon as we have further updates we will provide them.
We understand the membership is waiting to hear something from this process, and wanted to advise where we are at now.
In solidarity,
