Once you form a Union, you gain an effective voice in your wages, benefits and working conditions.

With our help, you will determine your own priorities and gain an effective voice by electing a negotiating committee to represent you in bargaining with the company. This will ensure positive changes to secure and improve your existing wages, benefits, pensions, overtime, paid holidays, seniority and working conditions. You will vote on a Joint Health & Safety committee that will have the power to force the company into making changes to keep the employees safe in the workplace.

It is your legal right to form a Union.

However, you need to do your job 100% and not let your activities to form a Union interfere with your work in any way. It is illegal for the company to interfere with your right to organize. Speaking with coworkers should only be done during non-paid break times, before or after work. If you feel that the Company is violating your freedom to form a union please call or email me immediately: 1-800-528-8879 or (289)-260-1613 or jkilley@teamsters879.ca Jim Killey – Membership Development Coordinator.

The Teamsters has the vast resources that place us on a more than equal level with the company.

Key Guarantees through a Collective Agreement (but not limited to):

• Your current working conditions will not change until you ratify your first collective agreement (Freeze Process)
• A Grievance and Arbitration Procedure
• No Grievance without Representation (on the job voted Stewards)
• No Termination without cause
• Seniority
• A legal binding contract with the Company
• Management must bargain “IN GOOD FAITH” with your Union 
• Legal support
• WSIB advocate
• Training
• Safe working conditions monitored by a company/members safety committee

Resources

• Researchers
• Organizers 
• Trainers
• Negotiators
• Public Relations & Media Experts
• Economic Analysts
• Lobbyists
• Benefit Experts
• Network of Attorneys
• WSIB Specialists

It is illegal for a company to freeze or cut previously scheduled raises or benefits to discourage you from forming a union.  Once you’re organized, you’ll lock in current wages, pension and benefits and then negotiate improvements from there.  All of you will get an opportunity to review your proposed contract before you vote to approve it.  Obviously, you’re not going to approve a contract that cuts your wages, pension or benefits.

With a collective agreement (a legal binding document) we negotiate security in seniority, guaranteed working conditions, pay, benefits & pension increases. We also eliminate favoritism and are guaranteed no last minute changes.

In a union shop the use of the grievance procedure will give us on the spot Union representation, a well-trained union team to negotiate new terms of our contract, the ability to hold the management accountable as well as respect and dignity.

Union dues are based upon your hourly rate of pay (base rate excludes all premium pay) and deducted once monthly.

Within Local 879, we deduct 3 times your hourly rate of pay once monthly. You pay no union dues before ratification of your first collective bargaining agreement. There are no initiation fees to new groups. 

The Teamsters is 100% funded by members – the Union accepts no money from outside sources in order to protect its integrity and independence. Union dues go directly to paying for the costs of operating the union and representing members. Every serious organization – churches, clubs, sporting leagues, and related associations require funding, and unions are no different.  Union dues pay for the costs of having an organization – contract negotiations, grievances and arbitrations, training for members, legal fees, and much more so you, the worker, will never have to “go it alone. ”Remember, a portion of your Union dues are tax deductible and will show on your T-4 forms each year.   

Absolutely not. The truth is just the opposite. Once you’ve voted for your union, everything you have is protected. Management can’t change your pay, benefits or working conditions without your approval. You start negotiating your contract from where you are and build on it. 

Again, if management really thought they could pay you less if you form a union, they’d be all for it! 

First of all, it stands to reason that employees are more likely to make improvements when they join together instead of going at it alone. Second, the only way you could be worse off would be if you and your co-workers agreed to a contract that gives you less pay and benefits, and who would ever do that? Finally, if management really believed you’d be earning less with a union, they’d be encouraging it, not resisting it!

In closing, where do you think the company’s priority lies? Company or employee? The company can change policies, benefits, pensions, wages… anything, anytime they want. With Teamsters, we will negotiate a contract that you, the members, think is fair. With a Collective Agreement the company can’t change anything that is agreed to in your contract, which will give you a piece of mind as to what to expect in wages, benefits, pension and working conditions each and every day.  

Anti-Union execs say “unions are bad” and “do nothing for workers’ rights.” So why do they fight workers when they try to organize? Are they really trying to care for them, pay workers more, and increase benefits? 

Hopefully after taking all of the information into consideration you will “SIGN A MEMBERSHIP CARD AND VOTE YES” for THE TEAMSTERS.