Sunday, September 1, 2024

Behind the Scenes

Did you know that CLAC has both a national Research Team and Communications Team to support healthcare members? Here’s a look at how they serve you

Newsletters Ontario Healthcare

By Justine Van Bolhuis, Research Supervisor, and Alison Brown, Associate Editor

Research Team

Many members likely don’t know about the CLAC Research Team and what it does for you. You won’t find our phone number at the back of your collective agreement like you would the local CLAC member centre or the Benefits or Retirement Teams, but we do a lot of work behind the scenes to assist your union representatives with achieving the best possible outcomes for members. Here’s what we do.

Legal Research Assistance

Healthcare is a grievance-heavy industry. Because so many parts of the collective agreement are based on seniority, the union often has to file a grievance on behalf of employees when the employer doesn’t follow proper seniority processes for awarding a job posting, offering overtime opportunities, granting vacation requests, etc. And of course, other issues related to discipline, pay errors, and countless other workplace rules and policies come up as well.

The bottom line is that there are a lot of grievances that CLAC representatives pursue on behalf of healthcare members. When they need advice on what legal precedent exists, and whether the grievance is likely to succeed at arbitration, they turn to the Research Team. We do legal research and find similar cases that can help representatives to either achieve a good settlement for the member or form the backbone of a strong argument to present to the arbitrator.

Interest Arbitration

Most Ontario healthcare members are legally unable to go on strike. So, if bargaining reaches an impasse, the union and employer go before a third-party arbitrator to determine the terms and conditions of the new collective agreement.

The whole process is a bit like preparing a court case, with the arbitrator as judge. The Research Team maintains a database of healthcare collective agreements across the province, and when a healthcare unit is going to interest arbitration, we use this data to build the best case for our proposals.

We put together a submission binder that, when printed, can stand up to three inches thick! This binder forms the basis for our arguments at the hearing. It helps the arbitrator make their decision on what wage increases and other monetary and language improvements to award for the new collective agreement.

Government Advocacy

The Ontario government makes a lot of policy and funding decisions that impact healthcare workers. The Research Team helps CLAC to advocate for healthcare members on the issues that matter to them by doing background research and writing government submissions on specific issues. Some of the topics we’ve covered include homecare mileage rates, WSIB coverage for retirement home employees, and hours of care for long term care residents. We also provide an annual prebudget submission with CLAC’s suggestions for what should be the provincial government’s priorities in the year to come.

These are just a few of the ways that the Research Team works for Ontario healthcare members. We may never get the chance to meet most of you face to face, but we do our best to help your union representatives to support you, just as you support the patients and residents you work with, day in and day out.

Communications Team

The CLAC Communications Team delivers professional print and digital communications in all mediums. Here’s a snapshot of what we do:

• Provide editing and design services for emails, webpages, ads, brochures, news releases, promotional services, etc.

• Print collective agreements

• Produce and distribute the Guide, CLAC’s national membership magazine

• Produce and distribute all local newsletters (including this one!)

• Oversee MemberPerks for CLAC, Building Communities, and Everyday Champions program

• Provide digital voting and survey support

• Provide raid and organizing support

• Produce videos

• Along with the CLAC Research Team, prepare submissions to the government

• Prepare communications for conferences, annual general meetings, events, etc.

• Manage CLAC’s social media presence (feel free to send your workplace photos and stories to socialmedia@clac.ca!)

Care to Share?

The Communications Team is always looking for human interest stories for your local newsletter, the Guide, and social media. Have something to share? A work anniversary or milestone? A heartwarming story? Feel free to share it with your representative, and they will pass it on to the Communications Team. You may see yourself on our social media channels or in the pages of our membership magazine!

Behind the Scenes

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