Wayne Moore - Castanet Nov 12, 2010
City of Kelowna workers have been without a collective bargaining agreement for more than 10 months. All that could change within the next couple of weeks. "We are still in progress," says Corporate Sustainability General Manager Paul Macklem. "We anticipate some news coming out of that in the next couple of weeks." Macklem wouldn't elaborate when asked what that news would entail. "I'll just say at this point we will be able to provide some information about where we're at at least. We are trying to work real hard on it now." The current four year contract between the city and approximately 550 CUPE employees expired December 31, 2009. Unionized employees are working under terms of the previous contract until a new deal is reached. "I'm sure we would both like to have had everything completed by now but there are a myriad of reasons why we are not complete," says Macklem. "I don't feel any need to panic like we won't get to an answer in the next short while."
Summerland and its CUPE workers agreed to terms of a three year contract early last month. That deal called for no increase in 2010, a 1.5% raise in 2011 and 1.75% in the final year of the deal in 2012. Macklem says while any deal is of interest, he doesn't see the Summerland settlement as being pertinent in this case. "We all have our local conditions and issues and they are not always monetary. We need to look at the whole package of what the negotiations look like." Once a new contract is reached with CUPE, the city will turn its attention the firefighters. Kelowna's firefighters are also without a contract. Their agreement expired in March of this year. While Macklem would like to move forward on that deal, however, the city is currently without an HR Director and a permanent fire chief. "I don't want to achieve certainty without the right people in place." The city hopes to announce the hiring of a new fire chief within the next week or so and also a new HR Director to replace Charlane Covington who retired earlier this year. Phone calls to local CUPE representatives were not returned.
1 comment:
* "City of Kelowna workers have been without a collective bargaining agreement for more than 10 months".
THIS STATEMENT IS TOTALLY INCORRRECT.
BC Labor legislation mandates that the existing agreements shall remain in force until such time as new terms are agreed upon by the employer and the union.
The Unions typically rant and rail that they have no agreement, but never tell the public that they are still receiving their pay and benefits during this period.
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