On March 31 the Ontario Regional office of CUPE National convened a meeting attended by representatives of CUPE National (Brian Atkinson, Karen McNama), Local 416 Executive (Mark Ferguson, Dave Hewitt) and the Library Division (Rob Rolfe, Brendan Haley). The purpose of the meeting was to try to reach an agreement that would allow us to begin negotiations with the Library.
A proposal to facilitate an exchange of information between the separate bargaining tables for Outside workers and Library workers was discussed. The Library Division representatives were prepared to agree to the proposal, but the Local 416 Executive would not agree without further conditions that were not acceptable to us. No agreement was reached.
As a result, we are not in a position to begin bargaining for library workers until CUPE National issues us a new local union charter. We have been told that the National Executive Board would do this in 3-4 weeks time following their meeting last week. This would mean the charter should be received by April 15 or April 22. We will advise you of any additional news.
Rob Rolfe – Library Division Chair
