There is currently a great deal of speculation about the possibility of a fall general election. If this happens, it may further delay all attempts to get the collective bargaining process moving forward. Other public service unions are still waiting to see some movement from the Treasury Board. In several cases, the Treasury Board has requested the establishment of Arbitration Boards. It appears that they are hoping to get low awards from these Arbitration Boards which will set precedents for the groups which will follow. Several of the public service unions are challenging these requests as they do not feel that TB has bargained in good faith.

In other cases, bargaining agents are proceeding along the Public Interest Commission route which could lead to strikes in the Public Service.

For the RCEA, this means that our bargaining will continue to be delayed. The Treasury Board will not give NRC a mandate to bargain until its major agreements have been resolved. The TB does not want separate employer agreements to set any kind of a precedent which could be cited by other public service unions. NRC is aware that we would like to commence bargaining as soon as possible and that we consider these delays unreasonable.

All our agreements have expired and all our groups have served notice to bargain. Three groups, OP, PG and TO, have submitted bargaining proposals. The TO Group had September bargaining dates scheduled but NRC cancelled them due to the unavailability of some of their bargaining team members. Bargaining for the TO Group has been rescheduled for October 1, 2, 28 and 29. We do not know if NRC will have a mandate by those dates. Bargaining has yet to be scheduled for the other groups.

We had hoped that things would start to move forward in the fall. Under normal circumstances, the current government is very slow with its approval and mandating process. If a fall election is called, it is more than likely that such approvals will slow down even more.

The RCEA is aware that retroactive pay does not make up for the lack of timely wage increases. Unfortunately, the ability to bargain in a timely manner is dependent upon the government being prepared to move forward. This does not seem to be the case at this time.