I am Bernard Holbrook, and I would like to represent you by becoming your next RCEA President. My primary goal will be to ensure that all RCEA members are being properly compensated for their assigned duties and responsibilities. I have the experience, drive and demonstrated leadership ability to represent you in an evolving labour negotiating environment.
The TO, OP, AD, AS, PG, and CS are currently in negotiations so I can not detail my exact position until after these negotiations conclude. For future rounds of negotiations, I will be working on addressing the numerous issues facing these groups.
During our current bargaining round this fall, I am on your TO bargaining team. I will be fighting hard to have the multitude of outstanding issues addressed. In our prior bargaining round, I was one of the RCEA members on the successful AD, AS, CS, PG and TO group negotiations for our expired collective agreements. That bargaining team ensured that our sick leave plan would remain unchanged — and secured an 8% increase over four years.
I have significant experience with NRC and the RCEA. I became a Technical Officer at the NRC Metrology Research Centre in February 2001. I have served as a Steward on the RCEA Executive Committee since February 2015. In March 2017, I accepted the role of Treasurer, joining the RCEA Management Committee and the Finance Committee. I currently contribute to Project Rondo, the Metrology’s EDI initiative. I also served on the NRC INMS CoSH committee from 2003 to 2012 and was chair of the INMS CoSH Chemical Inventory sub-committee.
As your Treasurer, I have ensured that the RCEA has continued to follow the policies and procedures that brought it into the black financially. I also ensured that the checks and balances within our system were operating correctly; these have passed external reviews and audits, as I have reported to both the Executive Committee and the membership at prior AGMs.
I owned and successfully operated two businesses that provided me with significant leadership challenges and opportunities. My experience managing staff and resolving client issues will allow me to effectively lead the RCEA.
As your President, I will encourage all RCEA staff to become bilingual by offering language training to improve service to members, and I will lobby to increase the bilingual bonus for RCEA members who hold bilingual positions. I will investigate hiring a lawyer to bring some of our legal work in-house. This role would bring additional negotiation capability and improve outcomes when multiple groups are negotiating simultaneously. Benefits would include ensuring that we can effectively challenge NRC and improving the efficacy of our grievances. I will also propose to eliminate the President’s monthly allowance to increase transparency.
My policies will not lead to an increase in your dues; I will recommend that the automatic dues increase in the RCEA Constitution be waived for at least the next two years.
The time for change is now. Vote for increasing transparency and accountability.
Vote for Bernard Holbrook.