Being unionized has many benefits and being unionized with SEU 800 is even more advantageous. Being unionized is also a right.
We have full time recruiters entirely available to meet you or meet your friends and acquaintances'. Each recruiting campaign is the object of a specific strategy coordinated by the President of the SEU Local 800 and supervised by the union's legal counsel, so if an employer tries to obstruct the process, our legal services then take over.
You can meet a recruiter to simply discuss and obtain more information.
There are onlyadvantages to becoming a member nof the SEU 800.
Labour relations consist of a lot of negotiations. Your collective agreement comes first, but then so do the amendments to the collective agreement, regulation of grievances and agreements regarding particular problems. One must be careful because once it is signed, its’ signed.
The mandates are established by the members or by the executive committee, according to the case. The signing of a collective agreement is authorized by a secret ballot vote by the members of each unit gathered together within a general assembly.
The representatives of the SEU 800 have the training and the experience to guide you through the negotiations. Their role may vary depending on the situations: spokes person, simple presence at the meetings and participation in the caucuses, or supervision from a distance. In each case, their advice is at your disposal.
Arbitration of grievances is not simple. A lot rests on the quality of the dossier and of the investigation, in which the executive committee may play a large role. But there are also a lot of rules of law and regulations of process to understand and apply. You have to know what to do and what not to do, but also when and how to do it. There is a strategy to the general process of arbitration and in the administration of the proof in particular. One must be prepared and also be able to react quickly with regards to the proof and the tactics of their adversary.
The representatives of the SEU 800 are competent to act as a prosecutors; when needed; they also benefit from the technical and professional support of the unions’ legal councilor. The arbitration of grievances is part of our essential services.
When all goes well, a worker who is a victim of a work accident or occupational diseases transmits his claim to CSST, and the later recognizes the event and pays the worker without any contestation.
Unfortunately, more often than not it is not that simple: for many reasons, CSST refuses the claim or yet the employer contests the decision of CSST which was favorable to the worker. Whether it is the worker or the employer who contests the decision of CSST, one must go before the administrative revision services of CSST. If the decision of the revision is also contested by the worker or by the employer, one must go before the CLP (Commission des lesion professionnelles) to plead the case. In front of the CLP, you will most likely face the employers’ representative. In this case, were talking about strategy, proof, interrogations, rules, etc.
Furthermore, in almost all cases, a conciliator of the CLP tries to regulate the dossier in a friendly manner without a hearing. How do you know that a proposed compromise is acceptable taking into account your dossier especially if you do not suffer a prejudice in the future in another case of an accident or in the case of a relapse or an aggravation?
The representatives of the SEU 800 are competent to act as prosecutors in front of the CLP and to council you in conciliation. One of our very own representatives is specialized in matters of work accidents and occupational diseases, and as a specialist is able to act as technical and professional support for the other representatives of the union and even plead certain dossiers herself.
Morally, work should be a right. In reality, it is rare those that go through their life as a worker without having recourse to employment insurance. Lose of contracts, lose of clients, reorganization of a company brings about lay offs; temporary when we are lucky, but more often permanent. During the time to find another job one still has to pay the groceries.
In a majority of cases, one only needs to make a request to receive employment insurance benefits. But for many reasons, there are often problems and the benefits are refused.
You can contest such a decision by the Employment insurance commission. In this case, you will have to defend yourself in front of the members of arbitration Council. You can go alone, but the Employment Insurance Law and its regulations form a “brick” that is several inches thick; there is much material to get caught on.
The representatives of the SEU 800 can give you precious advice to evaluate and defend your dossier. They may also accompany you and represent you in front of the arbitration Council.
Interpretation of the collective agreement
Your collective agreement is signed and all appears to be clear. However, it is often not to long later that problems arise. The employer arrives with his brilliant new ideas on the management of the employees and the application of the collective agreement. Does he have the right to do this or that? How do we apply the collective agreement in this or that situation that has never presented itself before? Does the employer have the right to take this or that decision that is not expected or foreseeable? Does the employer have the right to change the manner in which he has always done this or that?
What does this phrase or that paragraph really mean in the collective agreement? Does there really have to be a link between the other clauses of the collective agreement, which ones and in what manner? Are there clauses in the laws that shadow or complete those of the collective agreement? What interpretation rules are applicable and that an arbitrator eventually retains?
The members of your union executive often have the experience to find the answers. But at times the answers are more complicated or the situation is a new one. Our representatives have the knowledge it takes to help the members of the executive to make the right decision and take the proper action.
Unions are concerned by everything that touches labour relations within a company and labour relations consists of a lot more that the collective agreement or the Law. How to act in a conflict between one employee and his immediate superior, towards an administrative decision by the employer that goes against the interests of the employees, towards a conflict between the employees, towards proposals by the employer when the company is going bad or to the contrary when it is going very well and can no longer keep up to the demands, when all types of situations present themselves on which the collective agreement is grey, when the employer proposes things that are susceptible to dividing the employees amongst themselves, etc, etc, etc.
As an employee or better yet as a member of your union, you are directly implicated and could also be concerned by the situation. How do we see clearly, be objective, see all of the possibilities and all of the consequences’, take a better position?
The councilors of the SEU 800 have seen much and have the experience to help the union executive of your base unit to analyze the difficult situations thoroughly, take the best decisions and to make best recommendations to their members.
Executive Vice-President of the SEU 800 and person in charge of politics.
Her mandate is to protect and to put into application the rights and obligations of the union, to ensure the defense of its interests and to oversee the follow up of the dossiers related to accreditations. As such, she is the technical and professional support for the union representatives who have as their mandate to provide service to the members.
Union education, a tool that allows us to go further together.
Union education is aimed at workers who want to acquire the knowledge and the tools to further their work experience and union action. It is based on the knowledge and the experience of the group.
Objectives
Improve the work place by way of collective union action.
How?
By making the workers more aware, by enlightening them of their rights, by way of concise tools so that their union work is more efficient. To do this, the course contents allow one to complete the acquired knowledge, to exchange, to discuss and analyze simulated situations. The pedagogical method used is based on the interaction of the participants amongst themselves and with the educators.
The courses
The course subjects are as varied as the actions to be taken within a workplace. To improve the working conditions: union delegate, grievance procedure, grievance dossier. To favour the union democracy: role of the executive committee members and the union assembly procedures. For health and safety at work: how to become organized within health and safety and accident investigations, procedure for filing a claim with CSST.
The educators and the program
The education activities offered by the Service Employees Union, Local 800 are realized by a team of educators who are members from the base, committed and militant first and foremost in their workplace. A program of education activities is established each year and sessions are available throughout all of the regions. Education is offered mainly to members of the executive committee’s and members of the health and safety committees, but also to those militants who demonstrate a commitment for union action.
Many of our members of the miscellaneous division and all of our members of the School boards and university division benefit from a collective insurance negotiated with their employer and whom the latter is responsible for its administration. How do we allow the members of the Building Maintenance Division, many of whom are covered by one or the other decrees within that sector, to benefit from such insurance? The only solution was for the SEU 800 to become the title holder and administrator of a collective insurance plan to which all of the members of that division would have access to, no matter for which employer they work for. This was done by the SEU 800 many years ago.
The objective of the plan was to ensure members of the SEU
800 a protection against the loss and the major inconveniences that could result
from health problems from which they themselves or the members of their immediate
families could be the victims of.
The plan consists of the following benefits:
Over the years, the plan has been modified several times to adapt to the changes brought upon by the social laws, the increase of health care costs and the evolution of the needs of our members in matters of protections. The plan continues to evolve and, as in the past, all modifications are subject to the approval of the members covered by the plan.
Please refer to the other pages of our site to obtain detailed information regarding this collective insurance plan and on the ways that the SEU 800 determines the orientations with the participation of an insurance committee.
November 21, 1996, the Government of Quebec adopted the Law for salary equity. The objective of this law was to correct the salary differences between the categories of employment that were predominantly feminine and the categories of employment judged equivalent that were predominantly masculine. It is aimed at correcting the salary inequities that women are victims of solely because they occupy a job that is predominately feminine. It only has an effect on these categories of employment and if there is discrimination. At the end of the work on the equity within a given company, if an inequity is demonstrated for a category of employment predominately feminine, the employer must adjust the salaries of all those working within that category of employment. The mechanisms’ for applying this law are possibly complex.
From the beginning, the SEU 800 understood the importance at stake with this law and equipped themselves with the necessary tools to give their members the needed support. Furthermore, a person was trained and specialized on the application of the Law for salary equity, and a training course was created for our members and the members of the salary equity committees who wanted to receive this training. The specialist acts as an advisor to all of the different salary equity committee who require her services and in many cases she participates in the meetings with the representatives of the employers.
The law foresees that a company must have completed the work related to salary equity no later than November 21, 2001. As expected, many companies have not respected this deadline and work is still on going in many places. An employer who has not paid out the salary adjustments within the foreseen deadlines set out by the law must pay the legal rate of interest as of the moment when those amounts should have been paid out. The SEU 800 continues to follow up on these dossiers and to ensure its support to its members.
The law also foresees that after the realization of salary equity, companies have the obligation to maintain it there after. Consequently, the creation of new classes of employment, the modifications brought about to the tasks and the responsibilities of the existing class of employment and the modifications brought to the employees within the frame of the negotiation of the collective agreements must be take into account salary equity. At this level, the SEU 800 continues to provide its members all of their support in order for them to attain this objective.
The maintenance of public buildings is regulated by two Decrees in the province of Quebec: that of Montreal and that of Quebec. The Montreal Decree covers all of the south-east of the province that is from the Outaouais up to the Mauricie and Estrie. The Quebec Decree covers the north and east of the province, from the Abitibi-Temiscaminque, the Mauricie and Amiante up to the North Shore, the Madeleine Islands and the Gaspésie.
The application mechanisms of the Decrees are very complex but may be summarized as follows. At the beginning, a union representing the maintenance employees from the public buildings negotiates a collective agreement with an association representing the cleaning companies. Following that, the union and the employers association demands the Government to promulgate a law (Decree) that obliges all the companies, unionized or not, to apply the monetary clauses of the collective agreement: salaries, vacations, legal holidays, sick days, social holidays, work hours and premiums. An independent organism ensures the respect of each of the decrees: the parity committee. The administrative Council of each parity Committee is composed of an equal number of union representatives as the representatives from the employers association. The more important union and the one that is more representative in cleaning buildings within Quebec is SEU 800. At the end of the collective agreement, the parties negotiate once again and demand the Government to adopt a ruling (decree) modifying the preceding decree in accordance to the results of the negotiations.
The Decrees were created upon the demand of the SEU 800 in order to stop the non unionized companies from taking the contracts by tendering much lower because they pay their employees much less. Without the Decrees, the unionized companies would lose their contracts and their employees would lose their jobs. All of the jobs within the building maintenance would be at or near the minimum wage.
On the other hand, it must be noted that the collective agreements have many more rights and benefits for our members than those of the Decrees alone, notably the right to grievance and the arbitration process, the right to be defended by the union, seniority, rules to obtain a more beneficial position, the right to bump in case of loss of contract, rules related to health and safety at work, a collective insurance, etc.
It is thanks to the SEU 800 that the workers within the building maintenance benefit and will continue to benefit from decent working conditions. Through their actions in front of the employers of this sector, their implication in the administration of the Decrees and the Parity Committees and by way of their interventions against the Government, the SEU 800 is the only body able to maintain and improve the rights and the benefits of the workers from within this difficult sector of work.
The SEU 800 periodically publishes a newspaper that is sent by mail to each of its members. The information contained in the Journal du 800 is diversified and susceptible to interest all of our members: hot topics at the level of labour relations, news from the divisions, legal chronicle, SEU 800 activities, participation to the organisms to which we are affiliated. Our members are invited to submit articles regarding what’s going on within their company of their region; we are never alone to experience the same problem and information is a helping hand. The contents of the last two issues of the Journal are available on our web site.
The SEU 800 recognizes the importance of academic training as a means of personal and economical emancipation. Whereas instruction is recognized as a right, many people are deprived of this right due to financial reasons; because everyone knows that, free education costs a fortune. In order to help the access of post-secondary education and to encourage the pursuit of excellence. Each year, our union remits six scholarships worth $1000 each.
Admissibility
To be admissible for these scholarships, a candidate must pursue studies at
the college or university level; furthermore, he or she, his or her father or
mother must be a member of the SEU 800 for at least two years before the 1st
of January of the year of the attribution.
Attribution
The academic dossier and the out of school, social and community accomplishments
are notably taken into consideration in the evaluation of the candidatures received.
A scholarship is attributed on merit of each one of the five(5) divisions of
the Union and one is attributed on general merit, not taking into
consideration the divisions. The dossiers are evaluated by an University professors
independent from the SEU 800.
Procedure to submit a candidature for the SEU 800 Scholarships
The candidate must complete a candidature form that you may obtain by contacting
the head office of our union in Montreal (514-385-1717 or 1-800-361-2486) or
print the form available on this page (see below). This form must be returned
by fax at 514-385-9888 to the attention of Mrs. Marlène Choquette, Executive Secretary
of the SEU 800, before the last day of February.
The union will do a first selection based on the admissibility criteria and
then transmit an inscription form to those candidates who have satisfied the
eligibility requirements mentioned above.
Deadline for attributing the scholarships:
May or June of each year.
To print the form, click on the link below. The available form is in PDF.
The SEU believes that the means for someone to have their rights respected lies first on their capacity to communicate with those around them who can provide them with services, notably his or her work colleagues, their union and their employer. Amongst the members of our union we have many immigrants and we have noticed that many of these people are more susceptible to suffer abuse by their employer who takes advantage of their social isolation.
For several years, the SEU 800 has organized French course aimed at our members who have difficulty understanding and being understood within this language. These courses are organized by one of our representatives in collaboration with Emploi Québec who grants a subsidy to this effect and with the Commission scolaire des Hautes-Rivières who provides the teacher. The courses are held on Saturdays, throughout the fall and the winter.
Since the beginning, several hundred people have benefited from these French courses and we salute their courage, because one must have courage to sacrifice each and every Saturday, month after month, after a long and difficult week of work, many of whom work night shift. We are convinced that this is so worth it and that our members have become people who are more capable of communicating therefore more capable of understanding and defending their rights. The SEU 800 is proud of this social commitment.