Dear Public Sector NAPE Member,
As you are aware, NAPE has reached a tentative agreement with your employer.
Your bargaining team, consisting of rank and file members from your bargaining unit is recommending acceptance.
The tentative agreements apply to the following NAPE bargaining units: Air Services, CNA Faculty, CNA Support Staff, Correctional Officers, General Service, Group Homes, Health Professionals, Hospital Support Staff, Laboratory X-Ray, Marine Services, Maintenance and Operational Services (MOS), Newfoundland and Labrador Liquor Corporation (NLC), School Boards, Student Assistants, Ushers, and WorkplaceNL.
For this ratification vote, we are moving to a phone / online voting system.
We are working with Intelivote Systems Inc. to conduct your vote safely and securely. This Canadian company conducts votes for many of our sister unions and is a leader in the field. Intelivote is a services company that provides eDemocracy solutions to Government at all levels, political parties, unions, associations and other organizations that are required to regularly conduct elections, surveys, referendums, plebiscites, or other events that require secure, accessible member participation. Intelivote is federally certified.
The ratification vote process will be monitored by an independent third-party – Deloitte Canada (the same auditing firm that oversees our elections of President and Secretary-Treasurer).
Details on the voting process, voting instructions, hotline numbers, and FAQ information, etc. will be mailed, emailed, and posted in mid-January.. Voting will go live during the last week of January (the voting window will be three days long). Information, FAQs, agreement details, etc… will be posted as soon as the voting window opens.
There will be information posted online, FAQS, etc… as well as a phone bank staffed by bargaining team members and staff negotiators for 12 hours a day during the voting window. Members can view the details on Monday, reflect on them, talk to others in their workplaces, consult with members of the local executive or shop stewards, and/or call the phone line for more info with their questions before casting their vote. Again, this is significantly more time than is allotted at in-person meetings. Under the in-person ratification vote process – if you could not attend you could not vote which caused significant concerns from members.
This process will allow for an approximately 84-hour window for members to call in, discuss with each other, talk to their bargaining team reps, etc… This is much more than the usual process (go to meeting – if you can attend, get the agreement, ask questions, vote all in the same session).
We believe this will allow a greater number of members to vote on the agreement in a more efficient and effective manner (especially during the winter months). It also means members can vote from anywhere (so long as they have access to a phone or the internet).
NAPE will never know how you voted – but like the paper process, we will know you have cast a ballot, but the electronic and phone ballot is encrypted and secure and guarantees your ballot is secret.
It is crucial that NAPE has your current contact information on file. If you do not have a NAPE member card, or if you have recently moved or changed your physical or email address – please complete the member card registration form here: https://nape1.wpengine.com/member-services/nape-membership-card-application/
(You may also fill out a physical card or call our Membership Department but the online form is the preferred method)
