President's Message: AMAPCEO is fighting back against blanket denials

Over the past 24 hours, AMAPCEO members have reported a wave of responses to their remote work alternative working arrangement (AWA) requests—and overwhelmingly, those responses have been denials. 

These blanket denials come as an insult after ten long months of waiting. They are an insult to our advocacy on behalf of our members’ rights, and our good faith attempts to demonstrate why remote work works for employees, workplaces, and communities. 

We should all be furious—and more committed than ever to the fight for remote work. 

Over the past ten months, in addition to our fight for members’ rights in the workplace and in the media, AMAPCEO has launched five union-level disputes against the Employer. We recognized that the Employer is emulating the provincial government’s tactics by forcing us into litigation on remote work, just as the government forced us into litigation on Bill 124 and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. 

The Employer seems to have forgotten that we played the long game and won those fights. We haven’t. 

In addition to taking a page from the government’s playbook, it is clear that the Employer’s strategy is to first attempt to exhaust us by drawing out the AWA request review process, and then to overwhelm us by releasing the responses all at once.

We need to make it clear to them that this strategy won’t work. 

We need to make it clear that we are continuing to fight back—and that AMAPCEO members are kicking that fight into high gear. 

How you can fight back

Faced with this blatant violation of our Collective Agreement, one of the strongest tools we have in our arsenal is the dispute process. 

We need to demonstrate to the Employer that remote work works and that we’re not taking these blanket denials lying down. 

If you have requested a remote work AWA and received a denial or partial approval, you need to file a dispute. Now.  

We are holding a series of virtual town halls on AWA decisions throughout the week next week, and I strongly encourage you to attend. You can also learn more about how to file a dispute on our website. 

Every AMAPCEO member who received a denial needs to file a dispute. We need to turn the Employer’s own playbook against them. We need to overwhelm them with a sheer volume of disputes that forces them back to the table—and forces them to realize it’s just not worth it to fight us all on this.

We truly are stronger together. The more of us that stand together for remote and flexible work, the better our chances of winning this fight.

Stronger together,