The Urban Collective Agreement is Finally Ready!

When will I be receiving my copy of the collective agreement? Many have asked this question, and rightly so. This question is raised after every round of negotiations, but this time even more acutely. I am pleased to report that the proofreading, revision and layout process has finally been completed. You should receive your copy by mid-November.

A Painstaking Process

You may also be wondering what happened.  Following the signing of a collective agreement, the following process takes place. After the official signing, we have to individually check the French and English versions of the language. To do so, we form working groups who check the language and highlight any errors. Then, the French and English versions are compared. Although both versions are deemed official, it’s important that they match. Then, we discuss the necessary corrections with the employer. This back and forth between the parties takes time.

Additional Obstacles

This time, we encountered two additional obstacles: the poor quality of the language provided by the employer in French, and having two collective agreements, one that expires in 2015 and another in 2016.

The French language, in many areas, did not respect basic French grammar rules. We had to completely redraft some articles, including Article 20, while respecting the parties’ intent. This was no simple task.

We had to find a practical way of combining the two collective agreements, i.e. 2011-2015 and 2015-2016, into a single one. An explanation can be found in the preamble. The 2015-2016 wording is highlighted.

Finally, throughout the process, we tried to clarify the parties’ intent. Rest assured however that the language found in the collective agreement reflects the provisions you voted on last fall.

The struggles continues,