Mounties go with National Police Federation as choice for union representation

Prince Rupert's RCMP detachment, members across the Northwest along
with their counterparts across Canada recently voted to have the National
Police Federation certified to serve as their contract negotiators 

The times are about to be changing for the National Police force, with RCMP Members across Canada voting to have the National Police Federation represent them, the results of their certification vote which was held earlier this year were released on Friday.

Of the 17,734 eligible voters, 14,459 cast a ballot with 14,012 voting in favour of the National Police Federation, while 437 ballots were cast against that option.

With the certification vote the NPF will become the first certified bargaining agent for the membership of the RCMP and currently is in the process of serving Treasury Board with a "Notice to Bargain", with the bargaining process expected to start shortly.

The details of the vote were outlined in this information release.

The National Police Federation now represent over 18,000 members of
the RCMP as they prepare for their first labour contract negotiations

The number of serving members with the Prince Rupert detachment was last noted as at somewhere between 25 and 41 operational members, the majority of whom will be represented by the NPF as a result of the certification vote.

The Federal force was the last of Canada's police forces to become part of a unionized environment, Canada's municipal forces in the larger centres and those provinces which have provincial forces have long had the right to union representation.

The Mounties won their right to unionize after the Supreme Court of Canada struck down a law in 2015 that had forbidden the members of the force from forming a union, with the Court at the time stating that the law violated their charter rights to freedom of association.

There was no indication from the weekend as to when negotiations with Treasury Board will take place.

While we await more updates from the negotiation table, you can explore some of the day to day work of the members of the RCMP across the Northwest from our Emergency Responder Archive.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.