Did the survey ask what was thought of managers salaries?

Of course not.

Wow, now that is underhanded. Political gamesmanship at play here. They wanted to gauge the public’s potential appetite for the City to play hardball with the unions, in the run up to the next municipal election. That would be my guess. Why is Council just finding out about this tactic now? Who is running the City?

My original position was for the city to lock the workers out, but now I’m thinking the workers should go on strike in an effort to demand some respect! Clearly they aren’t getting any now, so what do they have to lose.

The core review process has ground away for seems like forever now, but nothing substantive, that I’m aware of has been implemented in terms of cost cutting. They raised a lot of fees, but could find no structural savings? That says to me that either there are none to be had, or that they’re too lazy, or incompetent to implement. Or perhaps lack the courage that real leadership requires.

The message I’m getting is that Mayor & Council and administration don’t want to do the tough work of rolling up their sleeves and making this City financially sustainable. Instead, they seem intent on grinding the workers to compensate for their managerial incompetence and that’s not okay. It’s the easiest thing to do, but by sneaking around and trying to gauge the public’s tolerance for the treatment of labour has just lost my respect and support.

And our elected officials knew nothing of this public survey until it was completed …that speaks volumes as to who is actually running this City. I agree City administration should not be seeking public opinion during contract negotiations….this causes nothing but divisiveness at the community level and shows a great deal of disrespect for CUPE city workers.

Wow, collective agreement negotiating being done in the media. Pitiful!

oh boy true gamesman ship at play here try going thru the front door instead of the back door you probably will get better results. this city is run by a bunch of skunks.

The union has been totally reasonable and fair. They are actually asking for a raise that is less then other city’s. Quesnel just got 1.5% – 1.75% and 2%. The provincial average has been 2% for each year.
The city councillor’s did not like that the city trashed the workers in the media. Makes you wonder who is running the city.
The city should wise up and look at what the rest of the province is getting for raises. Take the unions offer its a fair and below the provincial average

Political Justice, 2.0% might be considered fair, but not in the context of coming off of a 3.0, 3.0,3.0, 3.0 and 3.0 cumulative increase over the past 5 years. That’s 16.0% over the 5 year term of the Union’s last contract!! What did Quesnel and the rest of the province get for raises during the past 5 year term??

Given the extreme generosity of the last contract, especially considering that it covered a period of time that included the 2008 Stock Market meltdown and the ensuing global and Canadian recession, the current offer of 0, 0 and 2% is more than reasonable!!

I don’t believe that I heard a single Union Rep or a single City employee suggest at any time during that difficult period of time that their contract might have been just a bit on the generous side of the ledger!

Now I am sure that lots of the posters will now jump all over me for attacking our poor Unionized City employees. They will say that management gave themselves huge raises, so the Unionized workers should also get a huge raise. From where I and many others sit, 16.00 over 5 years was a pretty huge raise!

I’m not picking on our poor unionized city workforce! Instead, and let me be perfectly clear, I am attacking ALL City workers, both Unionized staff and Exempt staff, from the very highest position to the lowest level positions!!

Like I’ve said before and like I keep saying, it’s time for a complete top-to-bottom review and rationalization of all Public Sector positions, be they Federal, Provincial and Municipal employment positions. This includes everyone!! We have far too much government in our country, at all levels!

Enough is enough!!

Oops, got so cranked up that I forgot to mention that not only do we have far too much government in our country, at all levels, but the government/public service that we now have is costing us more than we can afford!!

It does sound like the City is playing hardball with the union. What i dont get is that the City governs it’s union workers with the interest of City budget and City citizens in mind however who gives the voice of reason to prevent the City management from giving themselves another 45% salary increase over the next five years?
Instead of playing hardball the City i think should at least throw their union workers 0.5%, 0.5%, & 2% to show some type of appreciation for their work.
Who wants a city operated by disgruntled employees?

The city workers should go for a 2 year contract and then begin negotiations the year of the winter games. Civic workers on strike during the games. That is a negotiating tool.

How we got saddled with such incompetence at city hall goes beyond all comprehension. It is good to see the “Peter principle” is alive and well.

Supporting the civic workers 100%.

“Wow, collective agreement negotiating being done in the media. Pitiful!” .. I think you can look back to last week and see that the union head started it by using the media to posture a view on how the city spends tax dollars inappropriately. It is not appropriate for her to express such a view when speaking for the collective. Her job is to negotiate for the union period, not dictate how tax dollars should be spent. I am not on either side because I think the overpriced union workers and the incompetent management of the city are both dragging this city down.

Skakun is quoted as saying:

“Why ask people what they think about CUPE wages when we are in contract negotiations?”

Easy …. that is the time when SOME of the information comes out and it is fresh on people’s mind.

Why would any reasonable person poll people at other times regarding salaries paid to staff?

Now, if we were to have a media release sometime during the year by City Hall that compares union as well as excluded staff compensation from PG to that of say 5 to 10 other similar cities in BC and that started to become a “conversation” on the different media services in the City for a week or so, and then a survey was taken of citizen opinions of the reasonableness of our salary structure for each worker group, then we would not have to do that now.

BUT WE ALL KNOW THAT THE CITY WILL NOT DO THAT!!!