Within our CBA there are provisions pertaining to promotions (Article 15:08) where if the employer intends to replace a vacancy there are specific rules for posting time limits and as well a pecking order (Article 11). Generally these are followed and your union leadership team watches as much as possible to ensure the CBA is enforced as negotiated. Member's are free to apply for these postings but those with the most seniority are not always selected by the employer's hiring team. In what we would perceive as a subjective process sometimes leads to junior members being selected over senior. According to the employer this happens because clearly the senior member has not prepared for the interview; very broad questions related to how you perform on a team, deal with stress, how you react in a crisis and so on. As far as jurisprudence is concerned (what an arbitrator would refer to in law) the employer will succeed 9 times out of 10. We will file grievances should a member feel the process was unfair but be forewarned that job posting grievances are very difficult to win.
We need to get ahead of this and when applying for a position members will need to be better prepared. With that said, I have taken on an initiative to help our members become better interviewees and invite you to get in touch with me to find out more well before your next interview.
Contact Rick Sasseville, Inside Unit Chair - (705) 507 5142 or call the hall (705) 560 4705.