Canadian Labour Reporter

1 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2014 FEBRUARY 3, 2014 LABOUR BRIEFS Unions react to recent armoured car robbery / Transit strike averted in Thunder Bay, Ont. / Almost 40,000 job vacancies lost in October . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS • Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, province-wide, N.L. Infectious disease education . . . . . . . . 3 • University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford, B.C. Whistleblower protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 • Camrose County, Camrose, Alta. Six-month probation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 • Summum Services Dédiés, province-wide, Que. No passengers permitted . . . . . . . 5 • Terrazzo, Tile and Marble Guild of Ontario, province-wide, Ont. Five-minute cleanup after each shift. . . 5 • Devonshire Care Centre, Edmonton. Special leave up to four days. . . . . . . . 6 • Association of Commercial & Industrial Contractors of Prince Edward Island, province-wide, P.E.I. No cellphones during work hours. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 ARBITRATION AWARDS • Parcel service driver fails to deliver .. . . 8 ON LABOUR-REPORTER.COM Visit www.labour-reporter.com for daily news stories. Follow us on Twitter @ labourreporter. And dont' forget — all collective agreement summaries on labour-reporter.com now include links to the full agreements. UPCOMING ISSUES The Ontario Minimum Wage Advisory Panel's recent recommendations to the provincial government include tying minimum wage to the rate of inflation. While workers' rights groups are calling for an immediate and more significant change, business groups warn the hike will only hurt workers. Find out more in the Feb. 10 issue of Canadian Labour Reporter. | by SAbRINA NANJI | NO COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT? No union dues? No problem. Enter Unifaith, Unifor's latest com- munity chapter and unofficial union. Unifaith launched in mid-January and is comprised of clergy and faith work- ers belonging to the United Church of Canada, which currently employs about 2,500 workers. Robin Wardlaw, president of Unifaith and a Toronto-based rev- erend, said United Church members have considered organizing for years now, but saw the community chapter as a means to vali- date that process and inch closer toward eventual cer- tification. "The union can come to my aid if I'm in difficulty at my church and feeling that there is no one there for me. I can call on the union and someone can be with me through the difficult, some- times lengthy, sometimes expensive pro- cess," Wardlaw said, adding he hopes the new chapter will break down isolation between clergy members. As part of its organization efforts, Uni- faith intends to put an end to what it says is a culture of harassment and bullying throughout the church, improve commu- nication between current and incoming members, deal with job security concerns and eventually beef up the vocation itself through a universal certification process akin to those for doctors and engineers. Though a community chapter still falls under Unifor's constitution, it is a separate entity. For instance, its members do not pay traditional union dues, but rather a stagnated amount ($5 per month for wage earners, $10 per month for sal- ary earners). Though Unifor collects, it does not allocate the money — where the funds go is de- cided by the chapter itself. Nor do members in a com- munity chapter all fall under one blanket employer — it can be made up of workers in a specific employment condition, such as cashiers or farmers. While the community chapter concept is hardly a novel one, it leaves plenty of room for interpretation and flexibility. The United Steelworkers union, for in- stance, introduced an associate member program back in the early 2000s in an at- tempt to foster community action. Back in Canada, Unifor's only other national community chapter is the Ca- nadian Freelance Union, a former Com- munications, Energy and Paperworkers local which became a community chap- ter after Unifor was created. Canada's clergy organize under Unifaith Community chapters breeding grounds for future bargaining units: Unifor PM #40065782 Continued on page 7 "It is meant to assist and involve people who want to join the union to be able to do it and to work on their collective goals." IN THIS ISSUE

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