About Collective Agreements
A Collective Agreement is what joining a union is all about. It's the authority behind your voice at the workplace. It guides how you and your co-workers are treated, and how you are compensated for your hard work. And it brings equality to the workplace, ensuring that all employees who do their jobs are treated fairly by management - equal work for equal pay.
The Collective Agreement is also a process, as you and your co-workers come together before negotiations to decide what your priorities are. And once a Collective agreement has been negotiated, you again get to vote on whether to accept or reject the contract. It really is democracy in action.
And that process grows from one Collective Agreement to the next, adding or bolstering contract provisions and benefits as it goes.
And those benefits can be extensive. Here is just a partial list of the provisions Teamsters 213 has negotiated over the years:
- Paid vacations and holidays
- Sick leave
- Seniority rights
- Wage increases
- Pension and Health & Welfare benefits
- Improvements to workplace conditions and safety
- Paid breaks
- Shift differentials
- Overtime rates (time-and-a-half and double-time)
- Job security
If you want to know more about how a Collective Agreement can benefit you, send us a question on our Ask Away forum.