To: ONG Citizen Unit Members Date: September 12, 2013

From: ONG Executive Committee Re: Bargaining Update

The ONG bargaining committee will be meeting on September 18 & 19

with Ministry of Labour Conciliation Officer Denise Small and the Citizen

bargaining committee in an attempt to negotiate a collective

agreement.

Although we have not signed off on any proposals as yet, we do have

agreement in principle with the company on several of their proposals,

and on one of ours. We discussed these in detail at our membership

meeting earlier this summer and they concern our pension, vacation,

pay schedule, layoff language and part-time hours.

We still have proposals outstanding with no agreement in principle, and

many of these are of vital importance to our members. These include

wages, benefits, length of contract and use of freelancers.

We are hoping that during these two days of meetings between the

Guild, The Ottawa Citizen and the conciliator we can reach agreement

on all of the outstanding issues and move forward with a new collective

agreement.

We will keep you informed of our progress.

Rob Bostelaar, Debbie Cole, Lois Kirkup, Jeff Parks

ONG Citizen Unit Bargaining Committee