Wednesday, January 23, 2013

City of WL runs into more negotiation problems

Update - Welcome to Williams Lake has more on this story here

If a disagreement with the Cariboo Regional District over a contract issue for rural fringe fire protection was a headache enough for Williams Lake City Council, now IUOE, the union that represents City workers at various City buildings including City Hall, Airport and the Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex is accusing the City of 'bargaining in bad faith'

See more below:

The City of Williams Lake's unionized workers will be taking a strike vote.

John Dube, the Service Agent for the International Union of Operating Engineers local 882, says contract talks with the city broke down on Monday.

Dube says the problem is that the employer wants to basically tear up their existing agreement.

He says the City is trying to negotiate things out of their collective agreement that they've had in place for years.

Dube says they haven't even begun to talk about wages.

He accuses the city of bargaining in bad faith and says they are considering going to the Labour Board.

Dube says a strike vote will take place on Sunday.

Dube says they represent just over 100 members including workers in Public Works, Firemen, Clerical staff at the R-C-M-P and at City Hall as well as workers at the airport and the Cariboo Memorial Complex.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

time for some new leadership!!!

Anonymous said...

I second that! Can they not deal fairly with anyone?

Tom said...

Wow,maybe those 10 to 15 % pay hikes to senior staff last summer is coming back to bite Council!!!!!It would seem all the money was used then.To rewrite the Union contract downward after those large senior staff raises probably does not sit well with the UNION STAFF.Hope they can come to an agreement thats good for the taxpayers and Union members.

Anonymous said...

Tom: here-here! The city has been a rudderless ship the past three years and in a state of paralysis, running everything past their Vancouver law firm. The city can afford big increases to management (plus a $20,000 bonus for one of them)yet it can't sit at the table with the union and negotiate in good faith??

Anonymous said...

So the lawyers get paid and the workers don't?

Anonymous said...

Amazing how the union folks forget their 15% (compounded) increase over the past few years. Not to mention cushy no lay off clauses, great benefits, great wages, and many other things I'm sure the average taxpayer knows nothing about.

Anonymous said...

Working for the city is “cushy”?? Only if you call doing two times the amount of work of a comparable position in industry and for managers where the prerequisites are a ‘straw-boss’ mentality and no management skills. And the great benefits you allude to are mostly paid for by the employees! Management, on the other hand, have two extra weeks’ vacation for attending council meetings, a pre-paid prescription card, six months of full pay and benefits on short-term disability, 10% higher wages than communities of a similar size because they are so worthy, and an average of 8.9% increase in those wages since April 2011! Plus they often call in that they’re “working from home”. That’s what the taxpayers should know about!