New Members Speak: CAW Does Make a Difference
Please note that you will need a copy of Real Player (freeware) installed on your computer in order to view the following video file(s). New Members Speak Out: CAW Makes A Difference RealVideo  Janice Carr Sault Area Hospitals, Sault Ste Marie RealVideo One of the main things I noticed about coming to the CAW is that the membership has a voice. Before, our Local was divided from Sault Ste. Marie and all the way down to Thunder Bay. Now we have our own charter in Sault Ste. Marie and we have our own executive board so we vote on issues that pertain to the members of the hospital and nursing home and we find that we're able to have a voice on whether we want it or don't want it.  Sharon Bell Extendicare London, London RealVideo "I know from when we did our bargaining a couple of years ago, it just felt more relaxed and I felt the employer had a bit more respect for the union - whereas in the past I don't feel that was the case. Our bargaining went very well. Our Bargaining Committee did all the talking, expressed to the employer what we wanted. It seemed more friendlier and we got the job done."  Diana Senko Vandaele Nursing Home, Sault Ste Marie RealVideo "I'm happy with the CAW Union. It is better than our former union, because in the past we never had a say in bargaining. Members were participating but they never could have a say and most of the time we never knew where our issues went to. This time round there was a bargaining committee that participated from the beginning to the end. We also ratified our contract and had our contract books within two months of our ratification."  Cathy Dear Tendercare Nursing Home, Sault Ste Marie RealVideo I would just like to let union members and non-union members know what a wonderful union CAW is. They have so many committees for all their members to join and be involved with. They make sure that any decisions being made are brought to the members and voted on, so everyone has a voice. Any decisions that they make they make with the members and they all vote on it and they all have a voice to be heard. I just want to let you know I'm very happy with CAW. We've joined, became part of their union over a year ago and anything we need, any information, anything, they're there to help us, they fight for us and I really feel that in the fight against management, they have helped us out tremendously.  Karen Buker Tendercare Nursing Home, Sault Ste Marie RealVideo CAW. I'm really proud to be a member there. I've been a member of the past union for 13 years and since we've switched over, I've seen many great things that have happened. One being that in the 13 years that we were with the past union I only saw a 1% wage increase, now, we've had at least a 4% increase.  Vickie Bellerive Sault Area Hospitals, Sault Ste Marie RealVideo My position is Buyer for the Materials Management Department. I believe that the CAW has brought us a lot further than we've ever been before, and all we can do is improve and get better, and it looks like CAW is going to do the job for us.  Kerry Papineau St Joseph's Hospital, Elliot Lake RealVideo Ever since we came over to the CAW the members finally have input over what is going to go on in this union. It's a membership-driven union. With our old union, we never got to vote on anything. It was just arbitrated and handed to us. It's a big difference now. There's more motivation for the members. They're more involved in the union. They have an input.  Ron Burns St Joseph's Hospital, Elliot Lake RealVideo We seem to get more people out to meetings now than we've ever had in the past. Previously, we've had maybe 5, 6, 8 people out. Now we're getting 30, 40 people out to a meeting out of, basically, 95 of us. And if things go better, we might get some more people on board in the town, and basically I think that everything has been much, much better.  Anne Cooper Tilbury Manor Nursing Home, Tilbury RealVideo The CAW stood up for us and fought for us to join them when we wanted to. Not too long ago we went to negotiate our contract with the company and it's the best contract we've had in years.  Lynn Beausoleil Tilbury Manor Nursing Home, Tilbury RealVideo Through the CAW Executive at Local 1941, we've been able to participate in the Women's Conference in Port Elgin, at the Education Centre with the CAW, which is a fantastic facility. All the education they've been providing has helped us to be much better representatives  Diane Pastorius University of Windsor, Windsor RealVideo With our previous union that we were with, it took two years to get our first contract settled. I know now that we're with CAW, it should take quicker to get this second contract settled. I know the full time people, their union contract was settled quicker, mainly because they were CAW and they didn't want a strike. I've seen strikes with CAW and they do get things accomplished. I'm very proud to be a CAW member and I'm looking forward to this negotiating.  Colleen Mahoney Hotel Dieu Grace Hospital, Windsor RealVideo I find the CAW is better. You get an education and it's ongoing, you can stop. I've been to the women's program there and also hoping to go to human resources conference at the end of March, and I just find that when you try to get a hold of somebody, you get a response pretty fast. It's great that their committee people are with you, they have a say in everything. It's not like before when it was hush, hush and only the unit chair said something. Everybody has their own say.  Mike Kisch University of Windsor, Windsor RealVideo One huge benefit with the CAW is the Family Education Centre up in Port Elgin, which I'm really looking forward to going to, even if it's with myself, but I really want to take my family up there as well, for at least a couple of weeks to learn more about the CAW, get more involved, make sure that I've got the proper tools, especially as the Chairperson to make sure I do represent my members properly and make sure that I do defend their rights. That's something that we never had before.  Yvonne Dollemont Finlandia Nursing Home, Sudbury RealVideo Since we got hold of the CAW to help us organize, we've got some fast results from them. Things happened real fast and we're really happy that we're organized and we're now working on our contract.  Anne Marie McGuiness Finlandia Nursing Home, Sudbury RealVideo I'm really impressed with the support and with the fast responses when questions are raised with our rep, the organizers, with the presidents. The lines of communication are always opened, phone calls are always answered. CAW "Fighting Back Makes a Difference." |
