Negotiation with the Management

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We had our 9th negotiation meeting with the management for our union's CBA yesterday. We were in a way expecting that we can already close all the pending proposed items. On the first part of the meeting, the atmosphere was light. We had some jolly discussions. We had closed 10 items, most are items we gave in in favor of the mgt. However when we came to discuss salary increase, the Mgt did not give any improvement to their offer. It's just a bit of insult to us because they had offered a much higher rate to our rank and file, than to us supervisors. The reason? Because we had filed a case on underpayment last year. And it is currently awaiting result from Court of Appeals now. They openly stated that it is because of the case that's why they offered smaller value. Isn't it unfair? We were given this right to claim what we believe is due to us. They are open about this, but they suddenly turned sour when we already had our CBA negotiation. Union cases should be treated separately. But they are indirectly telling us that filing that case was a wrong move. All is done. We were on a deadlock. We need to raise this to a higher level where Labor Department will come in to intervene and mediate us. Just hoping that we can still settle this peacefully... Who wants to go on strike anyway? We just want an outside party to see what's going on between us and somebody in authority to tell them that they are wrong to bundle the case with the negotiation. Hope we can settle this in no time...