What are we up to?

Bargaining officially starts next Monday so we’re busily getting organised to ensure that we have the best possible team ready to represent you in the negotiations and communicate with all members as we proceed. The following sites/groups have elected a member to be part of the Bargaining Reference Group; Merrylands, Bankstown, Ulladulla, Shellharbour, Dapto, Wollongong, Singleton, Mayfield, Fairfield, Castle Hill and NEIS. It’s not too late to nominate your site Union rep. Contact us if you need assistance.

Together, with the staff from the Union office, we will make up your “Union Negotiation Team”. As more members join and nominate a representative from their workplace, this team will grow – we will have a stronger voice and more comprehensive democratic voice.

The Union Negotiation Team has met and Keith Webb and Sonia Molina have been elected to come to bargaining and represent the membership on Monday (28 Sept). Over the process of the negotiations our members will be encouraged to get involved in any way they can. It may be distributing information, talking to your colleagues or coming along to the negotiations. The ASU is Union members’ bargaining rep and we can decide who fills the role of attending negotiations.

Union Vote

We sent out a Union vote last week which enabled all of our members to have their say and vote on the issues that have been raised so far. We put forward 10 main issues that were overwhelmingly supported by members.

A few of the big issues are:
•   Annual Leave Loading should be kept separate from base rates of pay.
•   Pay increases of over 2%.
•   If there is to be an incentive scheme – it needs to be detailed, appealable, transparent and fixed.
•   The classification system needs to truly reflect our work, skills and experiences and reward us fairly for the work that we do.

These issues were uniformly agreed to by our members. Our members also informed us that the majority of non-members also agreed with the range of issues we’d identified. We are confident that from all the info you have given us, we can represent your interests. Many members have also given us excellent feedback about many more issues. We are collating all YOUR views and they form our claim when we go to bargaining.

It is never too late for people to get involved so continue talking to your colleagues and encourage them to join. They’re more than welcome to send in their completed vote with their membership form. We care about what everyone thinks.

We need people to join their Union to ensure that together we can meet our goals.

Bargaining Agents

In our conversations and travels we are sensing that there is some confusion about bargaining reps.

From our perspective, this is how it all works.

•   Anyone can nominate as a bargaining agent.
•   Union members are automatically represented by their Union and don’t have to nominate anyone.
•   The ASU is a bargaining agent (and our members decide who negotiates for them).

So, what about non-members and the other bargaining agents?

Our members tell us that their non-member colleagues share the same concerns as them. So, fundamentally the Union voice is the voice of the employees.

That said, the Union office has held a teleconference with all the people who have nominated themselves (or been nominated by others) to attempt to ensure that employees views and concerns are shared in a strategic way when we get to negotiations.

It is our experience that it is only in the interest of employers to have division. Unions are democratic – we ask you to tell us what you want and we tell you exactly how your employer responds. We don’t agree to anything unless you tell us to. And we only recommend you agree when we are sure we have the very best outcome possible in the circumstance.

Workplace Meetings

Mission Australia senior management are unfortunately now making it more and more difficult for us to easily meet with groups of workers to have discussions with you about your enterprise agreement. Senior Management has sent an email to site managers asking them to refer us to HR when we call to arrange a meeting. HR is suggesting we can only meet in breaks – and that we should meet one-on-one in a separate room. It’s so much better to talk together – and openly. We are not sure why Mission Australia is not encouraging open group communication for your teams with us.

We have spent the last three weeks visiting almost all NSW sites and most have let us speak in staff meetings and morning meetings. This has been terrific. We want to keep doing this and we are in discussions with HR to attempt to do so. Mission Australia has been having conversations with you for months – they have held group “consultations”. We are a little bemused about why they don’t seem to want us to do the same.

We will keep working on this as we believe that it is in your best interest to remain informed about how negotiations are going. It’s also vital that we keep discussing your ideas about future pay and conditions relevant to the bargaining process.

Get involved

It’s not too late to get involved and take part in this process. The Union is here to help and support you along the way to getting what you want and deserve out of the bargaining process.

Our strength is in numbers so the more members we have the more chance we have of ensuring we’re getting you what you want from this process!

Keep the conversation going in your workplace and encourage your team to get involved and have their voice heard.

We are getting stronger and stronger – if you want info about how many members there are in your site, or want help making sure that we can encourage new people to join, call (02 9310 4000) or email Emily or Jocelyn from the Union office or even better one of your team!

For more information contact a member of YOUR TEAM!

Name	From	Contact
Sonia Molina	Mission Australia	This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Keith Webb	Mission Australia	This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Ed Shearer	Mission Australia	This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Liz Thomas	Mission Australia	This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Ati Pergeles	Mission Australia	This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Ingrid Heemskerk	Mission Australia	This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Scott Aurisch	Mission Australia	This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Lynette Cridge	Mission Australia	This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Emily Mayo	Australian Services Union	This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Jocelyn Gammie	Australian Services Union	This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it