Local Labour Council Pres Unimpressed With $6B Offer

Friday, December 09, 2005 09:00 AM

The President of the Prince George and District Labour Council has just returned to work from holidays, but is not impressed with the provincial government's offering while he was away.

Last week, BC Finance Minister, Carole Taylor, announced almost $6-billion dollars was being set aside for contract negotiations with almost 300,000 public sector workers in the new year. The financial package includes a $1-billion dollar bonus for signing a deal before April 1st, and a dividend pay-out worth up to $300-million dollars for inking a long-term deal.

"I know the public sector has been waiting to see money, they've been at zero-zero-and-zero in the past and some of them took big cuts," says Wayne Mills. But Mills feels the extra money amounts to a "hammer" over the heads of union negotiators.

He doesn't feel cash incentives are conducive to good-faith bargaining when they come with strings attached.

The PG & District Labour Council President also finds it interesting that the long-term deals being offered will expire after the next provincial election.

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Posted on Friday, December 09, 2005 09:00 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: diplomat on December 9 2005 9:26 AM

>He doesn't feel cash incentives are conducive to good-faith bargaining when they come with strings attached.<

Isn't a cash incentive comparable to a signing bonus in private industry bargaining? Signing bonuses have been approved by labour unions for many years in many industry bargaining agreements.

>"I know the public sector has been waiting to see money,<

Well, here is the money! Go for it.

Posted by: Death to Socialism on December 9 2005 10:20 AM

If they don't want it, I'll take it.
BTW - Is it my imagination or is this blog fizzling out?

Posted by: diplomat on December 9 2005 10:52 AM

Is this blog fizzling out? Make a really controversial statement and the keyboards will catch fire in a minute!

Posted by: diplomat on December 9 2005 11:01 AM

6 billion dollars! RT. What's a billion here, a billion there? A billion is a thousand times one million. Not exactly small change, in my humble opinion, and all of it to be generated by taxing working people and businesses, large and small.

The socialist mantra is that business doesn't pay its fair share of the taxes; that means that working stiffs like you and I bear the brunt of the load.

So, Mr. Wayne Mills, how about some more respect for the contribution of all the working people?

RT stands for Reality Therapy.

Posted by: ammonra on December 9 2005 11:03 AM

There hasn't been much I wanted to comment on lately.

As to the money issue, I am suspicious because the Liberals are telling public sector workers to sign fast and get extra money. They wouldn't do that unless they got something out of it. What is that? What are they hiding?

Posted by: diplomat on December 9 2005 12:15 PM

>What is that? What are they hiding? <

Your guess is as good as mine, but perhaps they are not hiding anything and just want contracts agreed upon without strikes and/or lockouts.

Of course, one has a good reason to be suspicious, because we are dealing with a government that among other things promised not to sell BC Rail!

Previous governments have shifted policies in mid-stream as well and created a lot of anger with people who had been promised otherwise.

Of course, the Liberals were re-elected and the majority of the voters gave them another chance to run the province with more fiscal astuteness, without mortgaging the futures of our children and grandchildren to the lenders and bankers.

For instance:

Germany, after seven years of a Social Democrat federal government has borrowed itself into such a debt hole that it is now forced to cut the pensions of public sector workers who are already retired.

The same thing is happening in France, by the way.

Public sector workers may assume that the money supply of their employer is limitless, but it just isn't so.

Posted by: ammonra on December 9 2005 2:35 PM

It just isn't so that public sector workers believe their employers have a limitless supply of money either, as it happens. Public sector unions are not run by fools, and they can and do afford very competent advice. They have, in the past, forgone pay raises because of limited money availability. That is a matter of public record in Canada and BC. What has happened in other countries may be interesting, but bears no relation to the BC situation where the Municipal Pension fund and its siblings are in excellent shape and so well run that they give yearly cost of living increases.

My concern is that the purpose of the extra financial inducement is to reduce political liability such as in the teacher's strike, rather than to ensure continuity of service. Incidentally, if the government can afford an induceemnt to sign then the money can't be in that short supply, can it?

Posted by: diplomat on December 9 2005 9:49 PM

>Incidentally, if the government can afford an induceemnt to sign then the money can't be in that short supply, can it? <

Good point. Indeed there is more money now! B.C. is in better shape now than it was through most of the 1990s.