cope491 – Page 2

20Oct 2020 by cope491

Election Call – December 2020

Elections

Between December 9 and December 15, 2020 members will elect three (3) Table Officers; one (1) Trustee ; and three (3) RVP's in accordance with the COPE 491 Bylaws. Officer Positions:National Vice-PresidentSecretaryEducation/Communication OfficerElected by a vote of the full membership.Trustee Position:3-year TrusteeElected by a vote of the full membership.By-Election {One (1) year Duration}:Region 6B - National Office/OAORegion 6C - National Office/OAORegion 7 - MaritimesElected by a vote of the membership in their respective regions Nominations will open November 4, 2020 and must be submitted to the Returning Officer by 4:00 P.M. on November 17, 2020; the day nominations close. To be eligible for a nomination and election, a member must be in continuous good standing for twelve (12) consecutive months prior to date of nomination. No nomination shall be accepted unless the member nominating…

09Oct 2020 by cope491

Bylaw Vote Coming October 14

Uncategorized

Watch your email inboxes on October 14 for the upcoming vote on changes to the Constitution and Bylaws for COPE Local 491. We have many changes to make to our Bylaws, and instead of overwhelming everyone all at once, it has been decided to break these changes down to a couple of steps.This first step (vote to start October 14th) is to bring our Constitution and Bylaws in line with current practices and to make other housekeeping changes to clean up some articles. The next stage is planned for early 2021 to start making language and changes. More information on that will be coming later. Click on the buttons below to review the proposed changes to the Constitution and Bylaws that are being put forward to vote on. The document has…

28Sep 2020 by cope491

Vacation Carry-Over

Miscellaneous

Greetings, As you all know, COPE currently has a policy grievance filed regarding vacation/.vacation payout. As we are actively working on this grievance, we are advising all members that as per Article 13.09(b) of the Collective Agreement, if you have any remaining vacation that you will not be using before the end of the year, that you wish to carry over for use next year, that you put this in writing and send it to your RD/ARD. We would also like to advise that this be done as soon as reasonably possible, as HR usually needs all forms to be submitted before the first week of December. If you have any difficulty getting your request approved, please advise your RVP right away. We will keep you all apprised of any…

28Sep 2020 by cope491

Sick Leave Bank Committee VACANCY

Uncategorized

COMMITTEE VACANCY COPE491 has one (1) vacancy on our Sick Leave Bank committee and are canvassing members to find out who is interested in working on this committee. The vacancy is for one of the positions that deals with requests from the National Office. Therefore the member must be from outside the National Office. The COPE491 Bylaws/Constitution/Policy states the following: 2.08 - Committee Appointments Local Union committee appointments will be reviewed and renewed as necessary. If a member is interested in holding a particular committee position, he/she should notify the Executive by advising their Regional Vice-President. The Executive will review the applications and make appointments. 2.05 - Sick Leave Bank Committee The Sick Leave Bank Committee shall consist of one (1) representative from the Employer and four (4) representatives from…

19Sep 2020 by cope491

All Blood is Equal

Miscellaneous

COPE National has adopted a resolution to support the campaign to end the "blood ban" at Canadian Blood Services (CBS). Currently CBS discriminates against gay men and trans women from donating blood. The blood ban is not based on science, just old discriminatory ideas. All blood in Canada is tested and is safe. For more information, please visit: www.allbloodisequal.ca COPE National President, David Black, has sent a letter calling for support from our local and our members. We are asking members to visit the above website and add your voice to end this discrimination; share the campaign with your friends, family, neighbours and fellow allies; and consider making a donation to the campaign so they can do more public outreach. The link to the campaign is also available on COPE 491's facebook group.

31Mar 2020 by cope491

Covid-19 Update

Miscellaneous

As this is a very difficult and uneasy time for all of us, I wanted to reach out to you, as we have heard some unsettling news regarding another Union that you may hear about in the next while. We have been told that UNIFOR will be moving to lay off staff in the coming weeks, due to the rise of unemployment in the sectors they represent. As this is a very troubling decision for UNIFOR to make, I am sure this may bring fear and uncertainty to our members as well. Just to clarify, this is UNIFOR the Union having to lay off staff, not UNIFOR members that work for CUPE. We know that all unions, organizations and governments, including CUPE will be impacted by the financial fallout of…

17Mar 2020 by cope491

Covid-19 Questions/Concerns

Miscellaneous

We know this has been a difficult time for COPE members, but please be certain, that we are trying to address questions and concerns as they arise. One of the concerns that was brought forward, was a question as to how we are going to be paid. We currently have members working in Payroll to ensure that we are all paid as per our regular scheduled payday. We would like to thank all of our members, who are working to make sure it is business as usual during these unprecedented times. As previously mentioned, please continue to send any questions or concerns through your RVP's. If there are any new updates, we will continue to get information to you all in a timely fashion. Thanking you all for your patience…

12Mar 2020 by cope491

COVID-19 CONCERNS

Miscellaneous

We are aware that members may have some concerns and questions surrounding COVID-19. COPE has sent a letter to the Employer asking for an urgent meeting/response to our concerns and questions. We have asked to work with the Employer on direction and policy around this declared pandemic and we will provide information as soon as it is available. In the meantime, please refer to Canadian Health Organization and/or other credible sources for information on best practices and updates on the pandemic progress. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection.html

24Feb 2020 by cope491

Returning Officer- Call for Interested Parties

Elections

As you are all aware, our elections are done electronically using Big Pulse. The program that we use requires some training and experience in order to use it efficiently. In the past, we have had one Returning Officer and have usually used them fairly exclusively, but it would be beneficial to have more than one person to turn to. We would like to have a couple different members that would be interested in acting as Returning Officer start some training on the program so that our local has more flexibility when coming across the need to appoint a Returning Officer for an election. We had sent out a request for interest last year and had some responses. Unfortunately the couple people we chose we unable to continue through and we…

19Feb 2020 by cope491

Vacation Statements

Miscellaneous

As many of you are starting to receive the vacation statements from HR, COPE is asking that you do NOT sign or return the statement yet. There have been numerous issues reported with vacation banks and payouts. We have filed a policy grievance on vacation issues. Please do not sign the statement and send in until we have the opportunity to address the vacation issues with the Employer. Please contact Sandra Lenuik, NVP (sandral@telus.net) if you have signed the form and submitted already OR if you have any issues with vacation that you have not reported to her yet. Thank you for your cooperation. ~COPE491 EXECUTIVE~