CUPE BC President Optimistic City Workers Can Reach Deal With City Hall
Thursday, October 10, 2013 @ 3:56 PM
The last offer from the City was for a 3 year deal, that offered zero, zero and 2%, “I don’t doubt that we’ll get a deal up here” says Hancock, who believes a deal can be reached without a strike or lockout. “I’m an optimistic guy by nature, we’ve got a good strike vote and obviously we are prepared to do that if we have to. I don’t think the City will lock us out, if they do it’s crazy, especially heading into the winter season, but our members are prepared to do what they need to do.”
Hancock says no one really wants to go on strike, “But at some point you have to fish or cut bait, but we’re not there yet.”
Hancock says Prince George’s municipal workers are lagging slightly behind the kind of wages being paid their counterparts in other regions of the province, but the real issue now is concern about skilled workers leaving the public sector to head to more lucrative jobs in the private sector. “I have been hearing for instance that our members in the paramedic field are being poached by private companies. They are going to (work) camps instead of making the two bucks on call, or the part time guys are making five or six hundred bucks a day in camp. We are hearing the same thing about our skilled trades. Labour up here, the boom is coming, there is a real concern that not only the City of Prince George, but the School Board, the College the University, a lot of those skilled people are going to be poached by the private sector and they will be making significant dollars doing that.”
The two sides in the Prince George negotiations haven’t sat down at the bargaining table for several weeks, and Hancock says there needs to be a better financial offer “Zero, zero and two just isn’t going to cut it here, it wouldn’t work pretty much anywhere in British Columbia.”
The last contract with the City expired at the end of 2012.
Comments
I hope the City locks these people out and just contracts out everything that needs to get done. A month on the picket line with very little pay will change their tune considerably I’ll bet.
Since when is it the concern of the Union President if people leave the City to work elsewhere.
I suggest that is a problem that will be dealt with by City administration. That’s a pretty weak bargaining chip.
I find it interesting that everyone complains how the government contracted out highway maintenance and how the quality of the roads have gone down, snow clearing is hit and miss from one town to another and so on, and yet people want to contract out the majority of city services ?
The province has clearly indicated how contracting out just doesn’t work. Pay the same or more for less service and still have to keep all the Manager’s around to “over see ” the contract.
“A month on the picket line with very little pay will change their tune considerably I’ll bet.” What an astute observation?! You go ahead and hope the City locks them out and then watch what happens to your City, but after a comment like that it’s clear you dont care about PG in the first place. 0 – 0 – 2 is an absolute joke and doesnt even keep up with inflation, oh I forgot though ALL City workers are rich and just “greedy” cuz they want a fair deal.
Knowledge88 :
So what would you consider a fair deal ? 0-1-1 ? 0-2-2 ? More ? I doubt that the city will budge on the first zero and have to pay “retro” for this year. Do you have other issues with the contract or is money the only issue ? Just want to make sure your not one of the “greedy” people.
Looks like it’s never gonna change. Council, and mayor gets a big pay hike, and the peons get the crumbs after all the union members are the one doing all the work
Oh please. Councillors don’t make the money that many CUPE members make. Didn’t I just read that councillors make about $40K a year? Pretty cheap considering the importance of their jobs.
I have to agree with Palopu, this is about the weakest attempt at a bargaining chip I have seen.
The issue may be more than just a wage settlement as there might be contract language changes that would set the stage for contracting out so might be tough to take less pay AND less security.
The really tough pill to swallow for the front line workers is that they are being asked to take a hit in their take home pay while mayor and council do just the opposite taking a 30% hike in their pay.
If that wasn’t enough this mayor and council continue to shell out more of our hard earned tax dollars for trips to China and they continue to fly all over the country to attend conferences. They also get an automatic pay increase at the end of this year.
Maybe if there was some leadership at the top that led by example then maybe the average worker might be a little more receptive to taking less.
Either way they don’t seem that far apart so you would think they could both compromise and make a deal.
“Pretty cheap considering the importance of their jobs.” LOL!!!! IMPORTANCE of a City councilors job???! Are you serious? U mean like refusing to pay taxes on your property like one councillor did, or waste taxpayers dollars taking trips to Vancouver and elsewhere cuz they can?
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