Comité de réserve

This committee consists of one member from each Local, appointed by the Local President and one Component appointed member. Each Local Component Committee member, in turn, heads up the Local Reserve Committee, under the direction of the Local President.

The first project on the Committee’s agenda is to receive training on the Netline awarding system in order to have the ability to use this system to track violations of award assignment and illegal changes to reserve members’ schedules.

The second project will be the development a “Reserve 101” seminar to teach members about reserve rules. Once developed, this seminar will be available at each Local to offer as needed – when new hires join the family or when layoffs force more senior members on reserve and they need a refresher on the rules.

In conjunction with the new component website, the Committee will participate in an online chat forum for Reserve. We will also further develop the concept of AM/PM reserve, monitor Call in to Reserve conversion rates and ensure that each base creates and maintains the overseas assignment list provided for under article B8.19.

Reserve has undergone many changes this year, due to the implementation of bidding for reserve days in PBS. Gone are the pre-set block patterns which made it easy to predict if you could hold a day off. Unstacking, previously only applicable to regular block holders, is now a reality for reserve block holders as well. We recognize the hardship this has created for those members at the very bottom of the list, whose chances of receiving the days off they bid for are greatly diminished. Unstacking proved especially challenging with the October block month, with many junior members on vacation – unstacking (especially on Thanksgiving) reached far up the reserve seniority list.

Reserve is not what it used to be and our support for our Members on reserve must be more proactive. It is our hope that this new committee will be an invaluable tool not only in the preservation of reserve rights under the Collective Agreement, but also be the driving change for improvements in reserve during the next round of bargaining in 2011. This committee will provide reserve members with a voice and encourage the participation of an often-disenfranchised group in the Union. While we do not pretend that this new Reserve Committee will be able to solve all these problems, we hope to create a forum for new and creative solutions to be discussed and developed.

We encourage anyone interested in participating in this important initiative to make your interest known to your Local.