HPAE 2018 Bargaining Conference: Issues in Action

On Wednesday, January 17, HPAE held its annual Bargaining and Leadership Conference in New Brunswick where members gathered to plan and coordinate organizing, mobilizing and bargaining strategies for the upcoming year. While each local union faces its own set of unique issues, the focus was on defining common contract campaign priorities and goals we must fight for as one union:

• Building our union’s power by winning fair election agreements to remove the unfair and coercive barriers to workers’ who are organizing.
• Demonstrating our solidarity and increasing our political action through stepped up member engagement.
• Focusing on strengthening safe staffing contract language and winning safe staffing legislation;
• Coordinating contract proposals between locals that share common employers, including joint bargaining and common contract expiration dates where possible.
• Expanding the benefits of the Retirement Medical Trust (RMT) program by increasing member and employer participation.
• Bringing our communities into the collective bargaining process by embracing an innovative “bargaining for the common good” approach to our campaigns.

We know that there will be difficult challenges facing us in the coming year, but with the knowledge, tools and renewed solidarity we gained through this conference, we can look forward to success in 2018!