Q: Did you receive pressure from the company to settle this agreement within a certain time frame? Did the union prefer to keep negotiating rather than present this agreement to membership?
Originally, in the “aggressive bargaining schedule” at the outset of negotiations, both parties were committed to a timeline within 12 months with management’s commitment to “top of industry rates”. When the time came to cement pay rates, management’s team stepped back from that and that time-frame collapsed. We entered mediation. There was no time limit in mediation and your Negotiating Committee was determined to negotiate as long as it took to get the best deal possible.