We urge all union members to attend depot meetings being held across Ausgrid next week to discuss your EBA. This is your chance to have your say directly to management and to ensure your voice is heard by your unions.
Your views will determine the direction of our EBA campaign from this point – is the current offer from management good enough to vote on OR do we need an industrial campaign to fight for an improved offer? That decision will be made by you, our members, next week at these depot meetings.
Background: the document
On 14 February 2018, the negotiating committee met at Ausgrid HOB to finalise the agreement negotiations before Ausgrid circulates a complete document for mass membership consideration. The main elements of that document were detailed in the previous combined union notice dated 2 February and remain in place.
This notice can be found at; https://usu.org.au/joint-notice-members-ausgrid-offer-table/
At the meeting of the 14th, delegated authority was granted to union officials to finalise any last-minute drafting changes before the document is distributed by Ausgrid and sent to the lawyers. You should now be in possession of a copy of that document.
About the depot meetings
In order to explain the main elements of the agreement and to gauge member sentiment on the document Ausgrid has, at the request of the unions, agreed to a series of two hour paid depot meetings in the lead up to the final vote. At these meetings Ausgrid management will speak to all employees, without the union present, for the first hour. The second hour will involve union officials’ and delegates explaining the offer and taking questions from members without Ausgrid management present. A schedule of these depot visits appears on the last page of this notice. This process gives members ample opportunity to give feedback to Ausgrid Management and Union Delegates and Officials on the appetite for the Agreement.
What happens next: delegates meeting to confirm members’ decision
The aim is that by the time a reconvened delegates meeting is held on Tuesday 27th February we will be in a good position to understand the sentiment of our members on the agreement and be able to recommend either an endorsement or an escalated industrial campaign in accordance with our FWC granted 30-day extension of industrial action. It is important that members understand that the agreement which has been distributed has been taken as far as possible by your negotiating committee and the officials. Any further concessions will require a concerted industrial campaign and that will be the subject of discussions during the depot tours.
We strongly urge all members to attend these important EBA briefings as it will be the last chance to voice your feelings on the document before either a final vote for endorsement or industrial action. If you have any questions please feel free to contact your your Organisers Troy Dunne p: 0419 403 076 e: tdunne@usu.org.au or Paul Sansom on 0409 076 633 or psansom@usu.org.au
