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Credit union deal finally signed

A year after a strike ended at the Nelson and District Credit Union, unionized employees at last have a signed collective agreement.
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Nelson and District Credit Union employees finally have a signed contract.

A year after a strike ended at the Nelson and District Credit Union, unionized employees at last have a signed collective agreement.

It follows a ruling by the Labour Relations Board last Wednesday around contract language. Both sides agree it took too long to resolve.

“Most of the discussions involving the board shouldn’t have had to happen, but they did,” says Doug Singer, financial secretary of United Steelworkers Local 1-405. “This has been a long, complicated process.”

Singer says although the agreement had not been finalized, the Credit Union followed its terms anyway, so workers weren’t shortchanged.

“They were applying the collective agreement, but it was a very unnecessary process,” he says. “It got dragged out. There weren’t a lot of logical or legitimate reasons that it took as long as it did.”

Credit union general manager Doug Stoddart says since the memorandum was reached last fall, “the union continually asked for changes. From management’s perspective we simply wanted to complete the process and get the new agreement registered with the labour board.”

The recent ruling granted one final language change and ordered both sides to sign the agreement.

The contract runs through May 31, 2013.

• The credit union holds its annual general meeting Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Prestige Lakeside Resort.

“We’ve had a successful year, especially considering one-time costs, including the negotiation process for the collective agreement and our conversion to a new banking process,” Stoddart says. “Our equity continues to grow.”

Two new directors will be named following voting last week — one for Nelson, and one at-large. There were three candidates for each.