Updates

Monday, July 24—We successfully formed our union at IPC!  

Dear friends and colleagues,

The results are finally in, and we are thrilled to announce that we have successfully formed our union at the IPC with 86% support!  This is an incredible achievement, and we are so grateful to each and every one of our colleagues who joined us along this journey!

From having important conversations with each other about our workplace, to showing up to Zoom events, to joining in cupcake breaks, to taking that final important step and casting our votes, this was a true community effort. We made this happen together, and we couldn’t be prouder.

Over the past few weeks, we stood strong and united, even as we faced a delays and challenges along the way.

We knew that we deserved a voice in our workplace for everyone at the IPC. We are excited to be able to use that voice in the coming weeks and months to advocate for the best possible workplace at the IPC.

We, the IPC Union Committee, are proud of our collective effort, dedication, solidarity, and support! We are looking forward to what the future holds for all of us at the IPC! 

What’s next

Over the next few weeks, we will begin to take steps toward negotiating our first collective agreement! AMAPCEO staff will be in touch to formally welcome us into AMAPCEO, and support us as we determine our priorities, select bargaining team representatives, and move forward with the bargaining process.

For now, though, it is important to remember that our existing terms and conditions of employment were “frozen” on the date we filed for certification (Thursday, June 22) and remain frozen until our first collective agreement is negotiated.

This means that our employer cannot change the terms of our employment—like job classification, salary, or work-from-home agreements—without getting our union’s consent. If our employer wants to increase our compensation or address job classification, for example, before a first collective agreement is concluded, IPC leadership and our union can come to an agreement.

AMAPCEO will be communicating updates and information to us via email and by posting on our IPC website, so we encourage everyone to keep your eyes on your inbox!

We would also like to take this opportunity to introduce Benjamin Rossiter, an AMAPCEO staff member who will be joining our team to provide us with support during the upcoming bargaining process.

If you have any questions in the meantime, feel free to contact Jennifer Pacheco at pacheco@amapceo.on.ca.

Below, please read the message from AMAPCEO President Dave Bulmer congratulating us and welcoming us to AMAPCEO!

--- Your IPC Union Committee

Congratulations!

We are thrilled to welcome you to AMAPCEO – Ontario's Professional Employees. We are genuinely honoured you have chosen us to be your bargaining agent.

This was a true grassroots movement, and your victory today is directly attributable to the commitment you have made to each other. That is what being a member of a union is all about —looking after one another and working together for the greater good.  

As employees of the IPC, you work hard to provide integral services to the people of Ontario. Your skills, dedication, and expertise allow Ontarians to trust that their access and privacy rights will be respected. Like a growing number of professionals in the public service, you have come to the realization that you need a voice in your workplace if you are to continue to provide the high-quality public services, we all value. A voice that will afford you fairness, respect, and security in your workplace, and a voice that will ensure public services are protected.

Today, through the results of your votes, you have made your own voices heard by choosing to become a member of AMAPCEO, a union of more than 16,000 professionals. And from today onward, we will join forces to improve your work lives and your workplace, and to protect Ontario’s valuable public services.

Soon, you will have the exciting opportunity to negotiate your first collective agreement. As you do, AMAPCEO’s professional staff and elected officials will be by your side as you determine your bargaining priorities, select a bargaining team, and conduct negotiations with your Employer. In doing so, you can rest assured that our goal will be to build and maintain a respectful relationship with your Employer because it is both our belief and our experience that positive labour relationships are a benefit to employees and employer alike.

I encourage you to keep an eye on your inbox and on the IPC website over the summer as things progress and I look forward to meeting with you in the not-too-distant future.

Stronger together,

Dave Bulmer

President & CEO, AMAPCEO – Ontario's Professional Employees

Dear friends and colleagues,

We are excited to announce that earlier today, AMAPCEO and our employer reached an agreement to have the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) unseal our ballot box and count our votes on Monday, July 24.

As you know, AMAPCEO had been working diligently with our employer for the past three weeks to resolve the outstanding challenge to the positions covered by the proposed bargaining unit description.

In discussions earlier today with our employer and the OLRB, AMAPCEO was able to reach a settlement that avoids the possibility of further delay and provides a date for the ballot count, as well as establishes a process for addressing any outstanding issues related to the bargaining unit.

We urge you to keep your eyes on your inbox, as well as on the IPC union updates page, on Monday, July 24 for the results of our vote to form a union at the IPC!

We also encourage you to show your solidarity and support for our union at the IPC and wear AMAPCEO blue on Monday, July 24!

In the meantime, we want to reiterate that:

• our employer does not have access to the votes and there is no way for them to know how you voted; and
• our existing terms and conditions of employment were “frozen” on the date we filed for certification (Thursday, June 22) and remain frozen until our first collective agreement is negotiated. Our employer cannot change the terms of our employment—like job classification, salary, or work-from-home agreements—without getting the union’s consent.

If you have any questions, please contact Jennifer Pacheco, Team Lead, Membership Services at pacheco@amapceo.on.ca.

We remain confident of a positive outcome and look forward to announcing the results and being formally welcomed into AMAPCEO soon!

--- Your IPC Union Committee

Dear friends and colleagues,

We wanted to provide you with a brief update regarding the results of the vote to form our union at the IPC.

As we explained on June 29, following our vote, our employer challenged positions covered by the bargaining unit description we proposed and refused to allow the ballot box to be opened. As a result of this challenge, the ballot box has been sealed and the votes cannot yet be counted. This means that the votes remain with the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) until this issue regarding the positions covered by the bargaining unit has been addressed.

In keeping with AMAPCEO’s principled, problem-solving approach to labour relations, we have been working diligently with our employer over the past two weeks to try to come to an agreement and resolve this issue. We have also followed up with the OLRB to urge them to unseal the ballot box.

In the meantime, we want to remind you of two things:

• that our employer does not have access to the votes and there is no way for them to know how you voted; and
• that our existing terms and conditions of employment were “frozen” on the date we filed for certification (Thursday, June 22) and remain frozen until our first collective agreement is negotiated. Our employer cannot change the terms of our employment—like job classification, salary, or work-from-home agreements—without getting the union’s consent.

If you have any questions or concerns as we work toward resolving the sealed ballot, please contact Jennifer Pacheco, Team Lead, Membership Services at pacheco@amapceo.on.ca.

AMAPCEO staff are meeting with the OLRB and our employer on Wednesday, July 19 to discuss any outstanding issues. By that time, we expect to know about when the ballot box will be unsealed.

We remain confident that the outcome of the vote will be positive—the move to form a union at the IPC was a true grassroots effort, with strong community support that only grew as the campaign went on. We urge you all to maintain that strength and positivity as we continue to work to resolve this temporary delay.

We hope to be able to make an exciting announcement soon!

--- Your IPC Union Committee

Dear friends and colleagues,

We know you are eagerly anticipating the outcome of the vote to form our union that has taken place over the past two days, so we wanted to provide you with a brief update.

The votes have all been cast and we are very confident of a positive outcome. However, a challenge has been made by our employer regarding who is eligible to be in our union. What does this mean? This means that the “ballot box” has been “sealed” and the votes cannot be counted until this issue is resolved.

Below, you will find a message from AMAPCEO staff explaining this challenge in further detail.

Know that we are all working hard to ensure this is resolved quickly, so we can see the results of our vote to form our union. We encourage you all to stay positive and continue to stand together! This challenge does not change or invalidate our votes and does not affect the ultimate outcome, it is simply a brief delay.

Finally, we want to express how proud we are of our collective effort, dedication, and solidarity —it has been incredibly heartening to see how all our friends and colleagues at the IPC have come together to advocate for a voice in our workplace.

We look forward to announcing positive news soon!

--- Your IPC Union Committee

First, we would like to take this opportunity to recognize the hard work of IPC employees over the past few weeks, from connecting with your colleagues over shared ideas and concerns, to signing a union card, to casting your vote. 

Forming a union is a significant undertaking, one that involves commitment, effort, and time from so many people. This has been a truly grassroots effort with an incredible degree of community support from its inception, and that support only grew and strengthened.

You worked hard to ensure that everyone was engaged and that their voices were being heard, with the goal of forming a union that represents all employees under one collective agreement.

AMAPCEO staff and your union committee took the position that, as is the case with the vast majority of unions, the IPC bargaining unit should include everyone except:

• managers, i.e. those who are responsible for hiring, discipline, or dismissals,
• the legal counsel representing the IPC, or
• staff that are employed in a confidential capacity in matters relating to labour relations.

In keeping with AMAPCEO’s principled, problem-solving approach to labour relations, AMAPCEO tried to work with the Employer to clarify that all positions except those listed above should be included in the bargaining unit.

However, the employer challenged positions covered by the bargaining unit description we proposed. As a result of this challenge, the ballot box has been sealed and the votes cannot yet be counted. This means that the votes remain with the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) until this issue regarding the positions covered by the bargaining unit has been addressed. Your employer does not have access to the votes and there is no way for your employer to know how you voted.

Over the next few weeks, we will be working towards resolving this matter and will keep you updated. Obviously, this uncertainty is deeply frustrating, but we are confident that the ultimate outcome of your union vote will be positive. We want to encourage you to stay strong and united while the certification process at the OLRB continues over the next few weeks, and to look forward to the exciting future that lies ahead for the IPC.

For now, though, it is important to remember that your existing terms and conditions of employment were “frozen” on the date you filed for certification (Thursday, June 22) and remain frozen until your first collective agreement is negotiated.

This means that your employer cannot change the terms of your employment—like job classification, salary, or work-from-home agreements—without getting the union’s consent. If your employer wants to increase your compensation or address job classification, for example, before a first collective agreement is concluded, IPC leadership and your union, AMAPCEO, can come to an agreement.

AMAPCEO remains committed to supporting you in forming a union at the IPC and will be working hard to ensure a swift, smooth resolution of this issue. In the meantime, you can expect updates related to the certification process here on the website and to your inbox. 

We look forward to welcoming you more formally into AMAPCEO in the near future.

In solidarity,

Jennifer Pacheco, Inessa Petersen, and Leah Rowlinson

Dearest friends and colleagues,

We’re almost there! We are reaching out to you today to share information about the union vote taking place this Thursday, June 29. But first, we want to take a moment to reflect on how far we’ve come. 

Over the past several weeks, we have connected with our colleagues and heard stories, concerns, and, most importantly, expressions of how much we all care about our workplace. It has been so eye opening and impactful. After these conversations, it comes as no surprise that we filed for certification with over 70% support and are still building on that number!

All of us care deeply about the IPC and are proud of the work we do for the people of this province. We want to have a voice in our workplace so that we can continue to provide outstanding service. And we are committed to working together to ensure the IPC continues to be the best possible place to work for all of us.

By forming a union, we know we will make positive changes in the workplace and rekindle the involvement we have had in the past. Forming a union will give us a voice to collectively assert our rights, meaningfully advocate for each other, and most importantly, do the work we care about, securely and with confidence. 

We are so excited to be on this journey together, and to have this opportunity to unite to advocate for fairness, transparency, and security at work.

We have all come this far together—now it’s time to see it through. Each and every vote counts. So on Thursday, June 29, let’s come together and VOTE YES for OUR union. 

Three simple steps to take on Thursday, June 29:

1. VOTE EARLY!
2. VOTE TOGETHER! (vote together with colleagues and make it a date!)
3. VOTE YES!

We have also updated our FAQs! Learn more about forming your union and the answers to your most frequently asked questions here.

Finally, to add a little icing to our union cake, come to the 14^th floor Wednesday and Thursday, and grab a cupcake!

Voting instructions

When:

The vote will take place from Thursday, June 29 at 2 pm ET to Friday June 30 at 2 pm ET.

Who:

All employees at the IPC except those responsible for hiring, discipline, or dismissals, the legal counsel representing the IPC, or staff that are employed in a confidential capacity in matters relating to labour relations.

If you are not on the list, but believe that you have the right to vote, we strongly encourage you to get in touch with OLRB to request a ballot. The most important thing, regardless of your position, is to cast your ballot and vote YES to form a union.

Where:

The vote will be held online. You will receive your ballot at your work email address. You can also forward this email to your personal email address and vote from there.

Alternatively, you may choose to cast your ballot over the phone.

The vote will be conducted by an experienced electronic voting provider with significant security measures in place to ensure the confidentiality of the ballot. Your employer is required by the OLRB to provide contact information (i.e., email addresses) for all employees.

How:

You will receive an email from the secure voting provider containing detailed instructions on how to vote, including a phone number, a URL, and a confidential personal identification number (PIN). Your PIN is required to vote and can only be used once; do not share it with anyone.

Please ensure you check your junk/spam folder for the email from the secure voting provider.

In the online vote, you enter your PIN and select a checkbox on the ballot displayed on your computer/mobile device screen. Vote YES to join the union.

By phone, you will receive automated prompts to submit your PIN and cast a ballot, pressing 1 or 2 to vote in response to the ballot question. Vote YES to join the union.

The ballot that will be provided to voters contains the following question:

In your employment relations with your Employer, do you wish to be represented by the Union?

To vote for our union, select the YES option.

If you do not receive a PIN, or if you require any assistance to vote, contact the Ontario Labour Relations Board Help Desk at 416-953-0926. Leave a detailed message if you do not get an answer right away. You will need to quote the following case number: 0722-23-R.

You can see the full copy of the OLRB’s decision regarding this vote here.

If you have any questions or concerns about the vote process, please contact Jennifer Pacheco at 416-899-8713 or at pacheco@amapceo.on.ca.

We have exciting news to share! With cards signed by over 70% of employees, we have officially filed an application to form our union! This marks the completion of the first step in the process.

This also means that a “freeze” on all of our current terms and conditions of employment is in effect until our first collective agreement is negotiated. In other words, the IPC cannot unilaterally change them to retaliate against us for unionizing. 

We now have our own website that explains how forming a union works and where we will share updates. 

If you have questions or need support, please contact Jennifer Pacheco at pacheco@amapceo.on.ca to be connected to a colleague who can give you more information.