CUPE hopeful
After two days of labour action this week, union officials are hopeful that a new round of talks with the provincial government will solve a labour dispute that has left 3,000 college and university support staff without a contract for two years.
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) workers from around the province walked off the job at 6 am on Tuesday, November 20, for a two-day work stoppage to voice their frustrations with Victoria’s “foot-dragging” on resolving the issue of wage increases.
They were frustrated that the Post Secondary Employers’ Association (PSEA), the body authorized to negotiate labour agreements with the union, hadn’t responded to the union’s proposal. The proposal suggests a four-year contract retroactive to 2010 when their last contract expired. It includes a two per cent wage increase for 2012 and another two per cent increase next year.
Vancouver Island University (VIU) has 260 CUPE members and is one of the six post-secondary institutions that was closed due to the strike. There are 12 CUPE members at VIU Powell River campus.
“The proposal was put forth and for five or six weeks there had been no answer at all from the government,” said Deborah Hopper, president of CUPE Local 1858 which represents VIU support staff. “They weren’t inviting us back to the table. That was the sticking point.”
Not only was PSEA not responding to the union’s proposal, it also wasn’t responding to the university’s solution for where to find the money for the increase. Schools had been directed to find the money to pay the wage increases by looking for efficiencies in their operating budgets.
“It’s been a lot of foot dragging on the government’s end,” said Hopper. “It’s very frustrating for both us and the administration at the university.”
Now union officials are cautiously optimistic a new round of talks that began Thursday will solve the dispute and further labour action will be unnecessary.
“We’re hopeful that we’ll actually be able to get back to the bargaining table or that they will be putting a proposal on the table shortly,” said Hopper.
PSEA CEO Anita Bleick said the association is prepared to come back to the table with a reasonable offer, “but unions in this sector need to be willing to stretch if they want to meet the expectations of their members.”
