HALIFAX, Oct. 8, 2014 /CNW/ - Unifor members at Bell Aliant have reached a new tentative three-year agreement with the employer ahead of the completion of the acquisition by Bell Canada Enterprises, Inc. on October 31.
"We continued with a bargaining process that had begun before the announcement of the BCE buyout and feel that this agreement is in the best interests of Bell Aliant workers," said Rick Rose, National Representative at Unifor.
Ratification meetings will begin next week and results of the vote will be known by Thursday, October 30. The master bargaining committee of the union will hold ratification meetings in the coming weeks to present details of the agreement and answer any questions that Bell Aliant employees may have. If ratified, the new agreement will take effect on January 1, 2015, a day after their current three-year deal expires.
Unifor represents nearly 3,000 workers at Bell Aliant across the four Atlantic Provinces with approximately 1,050 members in Nova Scotia, 675 in Newfoundland and Labrador, 875 in New Brunswick and 185 in Prince Edward Island. There will be a limited retirement offer made by the company coincidental with and conditional on successful ratification of this tentative agreement.
Unifor was founded Labour Day weekend 2013 when the Canadian Auto Workers and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers unions merged. With more than 305,000 members, Unifor is Canada's largest union in the private sector.
SOURCE: Unifor
Shelley Burgoyne, Communications cell: 902-717-7491 [email protected]
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