You have my full support CUPE members. After all the research I have done and reading the ridiculous and bogus rants of Mr.Gaal citing wages being the main issue (which it’s not) after approving himself a $52,000 a year raise is insanely hypocritical. Mr. Gaal, Shari Green and Beth James should be ashamed of themselves to stoop to such tactics. The Union needs to bring in their top dogs to put James and Gaal in their place!

Well, unfortunately for the unionized labour, I believe the city will run just fine without them.

I see no evidence that management intends to bend, so really it’s all just about how much the workers are willing to lose to make a point that largely won’t impact their opponents.

The city looks to reap big savings by this move on the union’s part. Even at let’s say 300 Full-time equivalents off the job, at an average pay rate of let’s say $27/hr, and an estimated employer burden cost of 30% on top of wages, the city stands to save:
300 * 27 * 8hrs * 1.30 = $84,240/day, which will translate into $1million saved in just under 12 days of job inaction. I think that might even be conservative.

If they stay out for 3 weeks, your tax bill might be 0% next July, instead of a 2.5% increase. Imagine that…

Good luck with that wish list, Sine Nomine! They have planned a tax increase for the new year. They have announced a 4.2% tax increase for infrastructure and the 2015 games and they’ve also already approved another salary increase for management. People are far too trusting when it comes to what they read in the paper. Gaal, James and Green are not issuing factual comments regarding the CUPE’s negotiations and the fact the City is trying to strip unionized employees of their rights, it’s not about wage increases. I have done my research and the tax hike will NOT be to the benefit of the blue collars, but the white collars will be able to afford a luxurious 30 day paid vacation while making $200,000+ a year and acting tough fighting the union over a reasonable contract.

I’m not worried about a tax increase. I’d rather pay more to maintain or increase services. After all, one gets what one pays for.

” the fact the City is trying to strip unionized employees of their rights”

Just cause you say it doesn’t make it so. Proof?

Just because Bill Gaal makes a statement claiming it’s all about wages doesn’t make it true, yet, you seem to be buying it.
That being said, when the City attempts to take away some of their benefits, their job security and to change work schedules, not being guaranteed 40 hr work weeks and possible layoffs for employees regardless of years of service, that’s unacceptable. While the white collars sit in their climate controlled offices approving themselves raises, they will NEVER have my support. CUPE members have my support and if I’m going to pay more taxes, I’d rather see them get something out of it than the already approved raises City management will be giving themselves in the new year.

City probably loves the timing, if they stretch it out until the new years, wouldn’t they save paying all the stat holidays?? 3 stats in 1 week and not paying overtime for those that would get called to work would save lots of money for the Mayor’s & friends next trip.. maybe she can finally afford to set up a twin city in Hawaii… If I were a city worker, I would want to save the strike til after I collected that stat pay … unless strike pay covers that, but I doubt it.

Our city is broke! They’re pinching their pennies right now so if there is a way to save a buck they will. I’m not in favor of any pay increases to city employees as we’re barely receiveing the essential services right now. Look at our roads?? Three days now since the snow fall and 1st Ave hasn’t even been plowed yet. $28/hr??? for what?? I made that as a Provincial gov’t employees and I have a University Degree and 2 Professional Designations. Some of these guys here don’t even have their Grade 12. If this were Alberta or Saskatchewan, city emplyees would be making about $18/hr instead of $28. Our city is broke people. It’s a combination of mis- management on the part of the City as well as overpaid employees.

If money is not he issue LL then why not accept 0-0-2 with everything else as is or as negotiated and see if the city accepts?

LeighL..again…proof please. You make all kids of statements with zero proof.

“City attempts to take away some of their benefits, their job security and to change work schedules, not being guaranteed 40 hr work weeks and possible layoffs for employees regardless of years of service”

One shred of proof..just one please.

KTaylor-

The city is broke due to the lack of leadership in the Chair and Council. When administration advises a tax increase of 7% and you raise taxes by 2.5 where’s shortfall coming from to bridge the gap. Green’s savings of 10% of the Cities operating budget?

As for wages:
City of Edmonton-Trade, transport, equipment operators+related occupations – $27.40/hr

http://www.edmonton.ca/business_economy/industrial_development/labour.aspx

City of Regina: Same as above – $28/hr

http://www.regina.ca/opencms/export/sites/regina.ca/residents/city-administration/.media/pdf/2012-public-accounts.pdf

Do your research. As for the City Employees, I’m with you! FYI I’m not a fan of Big Labor, but believe in fair business practice!

KTayor.. 1 degree and 2 prof designations. Congrats on this achevement..I will have a medium double double please..

“overpaid employees..”

28 bucks an hour to run equipment and work trades is rather low compared to industry. Running equipment and doing trades are dangerous jobs because of the many hazards involved and workers have fought for their right to be adequatly compensated for this.

It is about the money now. Or so the members think. Maybe the members need to look at the bigger picture and realize that their executive have lead them to the slaughter. They are the sacrificial lamb for the “Greater Good” of CUPE National. It all boils down to the two local unions being played by the Big Boys at the Provincial and National level. CUPE National does not want PG to accept zeros as it will lead to other CUPE contracts using PG as an example. Think about it… Why else would they be pushing so hard to strike over 1% that equals nothing compared to the financial losses of the CUPE 1048 and 399 members. Merry Christmas.

This is simply a case of a Narcissistic Mayor, a new “gun” in town working her first time as a city manager trying to prove a point, they had NO intention of negotiating fairly from day one! I support the Union members in their fight to be treated fairly and only hope the 6 figure salary club on the fifth floor wake up soon. If not….its gonna be a Long Difficult Winter as I don’t see the Cupe Union members folding, and why should they!

Trans: “CUPE National does not want PG to accept zeros as it will lead to other CUPE contracts using PG as an example. Think about it… Why else would they be pushing so hard to strike over 1% that equals nothing compared to the financial losses of the CUPE 1048 and 399 members.”

I agree with this, but I thought the last offer was 0,0,and 2.

If the union wants more than that, maybe they could re-consider the ridiculous banked sick day policy they currently have in place.

Banked sick days? thought that went out with the dodo bird…How many days do our employees get? Like, if a guy goes for a year without a sick day taken he gets a cheque?

Banked sick days? thought that went out with the dodo bird…How many days do our employees get? Like, if a guy goes for a year without a sick day taken he gets a cheque?

My full support to the striking workers. Everyone deserves fair wage increases. 0-0-2 sucks.

Banked sick days? thought that went out with the dodo bird…How many days do our employees get? Like, if a guy goes for a year without a sick day taken he gets a cheque?

They have my FULL support as well, 0-0-2 is a Joke especially given that Quesnel just gave all there employees a wage increase despite the largest mill in town closing down for good in Canfor! 100% SUPPORT THE WORKERS

Banked sick days? thought that went out with the dodo bird…How many days do our employees get? Like, if a guy goes for a year without a sick day taken he gets a cheque?

Quesnel keeps their streets clean and well maintained. Quesnel needs an arena way more than we did…they lost their hockey team because their rink is a dump. Meanwhile…we tear down a perfectly good facility to replace it with the exact same thing. Bleachers are on the other side that’s all. Poor management by the city…absolutely! I agree with people being properly compensated but $28/hr to drive a garbage truck down the street…C’mon they don’t even have to get out of the truck anymore. Give me a break! These people aren’t teachers, nurses, etc. Equal pay for equal value I say!

Well K Taylor I don’t K how long you spent getting your degrees, prob sub by tax payers. Ppl with good paying jobs are also taxed hard, so the Government can subsidize students.

CrysBaron

Were the Quesnel workers crying like a bunch of spoiled brats when PG cupe workers got 16% in the last contract, substantially more than what they settled for?
What is on the table is more than fair, still among the highest paid in the province, if they don’t like it then see them in the spring.

Ewitt good for them achieving 16% on their last contract. What you fail to include is the term of the contract. How do you continue to deal with increases being added at every turn. 0-0-2 doesn’t cut it.

doneright!
I put myself through school…and yes I get taxed hard and I’m tired of it. Our property taxes rank amongst the highest in the province and when they do decide to plow my street (which is almost never), they tear up my lawn and underground sprinklers. When I complain to the city about it, I’m told they legally don’t even have to maintain the streets. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like paying for essential services that I’m not getting. All I’m saying is the City can’t afford pay increases. You can’t squeeze blood from a stone. If city employees have a problem with that, then it’s their right to vote in a new City Council.

Inflation is less than 1% and not expected to change .5-.5-1 % would then suffice. If they want more then should be willing to talk about how saving can be made in other parts of the contract.

Ewitt. Absolutely!! Good point. Can’t keep dishing out the money people. It’s gotta come from somewhere.

k taylor says “yes I get taxed hard and I’m tired of it. Our property taxes rank amongst the highest in the province”
——————————————–
and PG’s business/industrial taxes are in the lowest bracket in the province … do you see a problem here?

combine that with the fact that the population has been static for 30 years yet the City continues to allow new subdivisions to be developed on the edge of city land base (which is one of the largest in the province
… do you see a problem here?

Are you surprised that PG’s home owners pay high taxes? ktaylor is right … the money does has to come some from somewhere … the City’s plan is from their workers along with the working homeowners …sure isn’t going to come from the developer and business buddies

There is so much propaganda coming out of city hall even city hall is believing the B.S. they are spouting. No wonder they need 3 more spin doctors.

Green and company are no doubt the absolute worst group of management people ever assembled in PG in the last 35 years.

Hats of to the union for standing up to what has become a dictatorship of Nazi proportion from city hall.

I would gladly pay a Cupe levy! But they can shove all their other levy’s where the sun don’t shine. Learn to spend our money properly city hall and maybe you won’t run out! By the way can we get an update on the Nissan Leaf!!!?

ewitt- Do your Homework! The City of Quesnel has one of the most militant CUPE Unions around and took an overwhelming strike vote 3 years ago and almost went on Strike. The City of Quesnel CUPE workers HAVE went on Strike before so your statement that its only the PG “spoiled brats” is incorrect. The City of PG has the biggest bunch of whiners, on that point your correct….but its the Citizens that think they should have Golden paved roads and a sub standard police station and pools and parks and arenas etc…BUT, don’t want to have to pay the workers to do it as they should all be making minimum wage cuz after all….ITS MY TAX Dollar!!

Support the CUPE workers if you must, but don’t complain when taxes keep going up.

Any money they get will come directly from yours and my pockets.

CrysBaron:At the end of the contract being offered the PG workers will still be paid third highest among a group of some 30 odd communities in BC Hardly minimum wage.
Cupe workers might not be pampered but some should be in Pampers!

Crysbaron: I don’t think anyone expects to have Golden paved roads…just a local gov’t that is fiscally responsible that’s all. You have to admit that there’s been a gross mis-management of tax dollars in this city for a while now and it’s not just this City Council who’s to blame.

3rd highest wage in BC? Was this based on the laborer position that was posted a couple weeks back? This position pays well but when u are shovelling snow 7 months of the year in the cold unlike most cities in the south of BC, I can understand why they are paid the wage they receive.

I do believe that striking over 2% is somewhat ridiculous. I seen Gaal and Bigelow on ckpg news last night. Gaal waiting for the union to counter offer the cities final offer, and Bigelow apparently not hearing this until the media told her. Is there a lack of communication here? With today’s abundance and ease of communication I would think that would be impossible. Both sides need to stop playing games and figure stuff out.

Next time I see 9 at a work site..2 doing the work and 7 foreman leaning on there shovels…..give em shit and push em in it..

So how do managements pay and benifits compare to the rest of the province. Greens friends a always whining about the unions?

We can talk about a couple of manager’s pay all day, but it is the union that is by far the biggest cost to the City.

Talking about what Bill Gaal makes (for example) is a red herring. If we are paying managers in this City $42 million / year, then we can compare apples to apples.

Shut up, Quit bitching and get back to work! There are 25’000 people in PG who would give their right arm to make the kind of money you do and work as hard as you do. Maybe these union wimps should try a day of cleaning hotel rooms or flipping burgers for $11 and hour and see what real work is all about!

From a home owner, who pays taxes, I am more than happy to have my taxes spent on city workers who pay to keep a roof over their families heads and to put food in their fridges and on their tables :-)

As for CUPE going on strike for the first time in history, I think most of us know the reason why is because; for the first time in history we have a Mayor like Green and a City Manager like James together in City Hall at the same time. (I call it the Perfect Storm, although others can call it the storm of the century) LOL

Mr Meisner, maybe you can investigate how much of our tax dollars is being spent to bring in out of town people to intimidate the people on the picket lines. I heard a rumour that people as far away as Edmonton were being brought in to do just that! Stir up trouble.

This 42 million dollars would be paid to contractors if there were no union workers. It is the price of maintaining a city. Anyone who has issues with union workers in any area of Prince George weather it be with a mill, school district, city , or where ever, really needs to think about residing somewhere else. We have to keep wages in the north decent. Decent paying jobs will keep and hopefully attract people to Prince George.

PGMAKESMECRAZY- LOL Cuz your stuck cleaning hotel rooms or flipping burgers don’t bitch about City Workers who applied for Jobs, won them and are now making a decent wage. Folks whining about City wages just smack of Jealousy. Your logic is that, according to YOU there are 25000 people who would “give their right arm” to make the kind of Money Union employees for the City make??! My guess is 24000 of them make MORE than the city wages. I seem to see young kids driving brand new jacked up trucks everywhere I look, spin your crap elsewhere that times are tough and now the city needs to show that by making an example of the City Workers. I try to stay objective and sincere but quite frankly knee jerk responses from Mental Midgets like you are what’s wrong with this City, not its workers!

CrysBaron…..obviously your a city employee also getting paid to play on 250 all day. Are you sitting next to LeighL ?

Much rather a tax increase to pay for an increase in a workers wages than to waste 42 million on a PAC with an annual expense to operate of 1/2 million per year. Add that to the 1/2 million annual subsidy it already cost the taxpayers for the Northern Sports Center, the mighty Nissan leaf, and the white elephant purchase of heat from Lakeland Mills a small wage increase is nothing more than a pittance compared to the waste of taxpayer dollars under the regime of Green and company.

” I heard a rumour” nuff said. Next.

hey sine nomind you have probably never worked for a union but if you ever did you would have your nose so far up managements butt you would look like a chocolate dumpling…cheers

I worked in the trades in industry all my life. I never enjoyed the benefit of banked sick days! You get sick and miss a day – you have a hole in your paycheque, period.

I spent many months on picket lines on several strikes. It wasn’t the end of the world and it seemed to be unavoidable. If anything it was a great learning experience both for the union members and management. Here in PG these workers never went on strike and the City never had to deal with striking workers and the detrimental effects on the community.

So, good luck to the workers, most of all!
As for City Hall, well…what is there left to say except that November 2014 can’t come soon enough for many citizens.

Hopefully it won’t be too hard on us, the taxpayers who are the meat in the sandwich.

contractor: “Banked sick days? thought that went out with the dodo bird…”

———

From the recent article: “In 2012, the City says it spent more than $1.2 million funding sick leave for CUPE employees, money which it says could be reallocated to wages or other benefits.”

blog/view/30025/250+news/mediated+talks+at+city+fail

The rumor was from a reliable source. The city will have people monitoring the picket lines with goons paid for with your tax dollars.

I’ve heard plenty of rumours too… but most of them are complete BS. This sounds like another one.

The only goons I’ve ever heard of were actually in the picket lines, not ‘monitoring’ them.

How much have they paid that lawyer to negotiate for the city??

$1000 per day or more?? Maybe $2000 per day….some of these lawyers can charge over $500 per HOUR…..

If I was a lawyer being paid a couple thousand dollars per day, plus expenses…..I’d make sure to drag this out for as long as possible….ka-ching, more money leaving our city.

Noway: you got that rite. again the mayor has gone out to steal more money from our pockets, the tax payers. she has hired private i’s and over 150 to monitor their activities. mis green must go. before we all for years to come will be paying for her selfishness thru taxes. cupe stick to yours guns

Middlefinger….Nice name by the way, says a lot about your mindset, Guess again Jackass! I work for a sawmill in town but am intelligent enough to recognize when Union workers are getting screwed for no other reason than one woman ambition, try opening your ears and your mind while closing your mouth and you might learn something….or may I suggest your screen name right back at ya!

heck give them all 5-5-5 higher wages and more prov and fed taxes they’ll pay

We will see JohnnyB!

CrysBaron….I don’t believe you. Your a snivelling city worker that is giving your union brothers and sisters a bad rap by spending your day on 250 spewing your views of the little bubble that you live in.

So what is left on the table to negotiate CrysBaron ? Just a wage increase ? Job security ? Pensions and benefits ? If the struggle is now down to just an attempt to geta one more percent wage increase, then you are a moron.

By the way, I support fair bargaining and negotiations which, I agree, the city has botched badly but I won’t support some city employee getting paid to play on 250 all day.

You are. Need edit button.

Its amazing how some people on here want the union workers to work for $10 bucks an hour like everyone else.
Is this board full of uneducated people???

$10/ hour flipping burger serving coffee… The owners of these businesses are rich off the backs of workers.

$29/ hour at local mills, through efficiencies the mills have worked with much less people, thus making the company rich. Shareholders are rich off the backs of few workers. While others are unemployed.

$15-$32/ hour local phone company outsourced 8000 good jobs thus making the company rich along with a select few, on the backs of a few workers

the 1% are getting richer and the rest of us are getting poorer, not for any other reason but Greed!

Is this the society you want to contribute to and live in?

I support the workers 100% and I pay taxes here.

They have to fight just to keep a livable wage, nothing more.

City of Prince George Wages !!!!

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/public-sector-salaries/basic.html?appSession=823426928608592&RecordID=&PageID=2&PrevPageID=1&cpipage=1&CPISortType=&CPIorderBy=

City of Prince George Wages !!!!

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/public-sector-salaries/basic.html?appSession=823426928608592&RecordID=&PageID=2&PrevPageID=1&cpipage=1&CPISortType=&CPIorderBy=

Link instructions at the bottom by the post comment button Joey!

@Middle finger LOL

So you support fair bargaining middle finger? Then let them get what the rest of Cupe locals got throughout BC this year.

Joey: “Its amazing how some people on here want the union workers to work for $10 bucks an hour like everyone else. “

Who said that? Everyone knows that City workers make an excellent wage with gold plated benefit and pension packages, which outstrip their private sector counterparts. However, people have said they’re tired of the constant tax increases and this is a big part of that, whether you want to acknowledge it or not. I’m not sure why that is so hard to understand.

Tired of constant tax increase because incompetent money management JohnnyB. Council voted themselves a raise to keep up with the jones’s before last election. So if it good for them why not for the rest! Gold plated JohnnyB? Maybe compared to someone that works at Moldmart! Cut the fat, stop wasting money and just maybe they could afford not to raise taxes.

Noway say’s “cut the fat”. So what exactly is it you do for the city Noway ?