Job Action From Southeast Kootenay Education Workers Next Week, If No Deal Is Reached

Posted on December 14, 2013 by CanucksBanter

By Andrew Chernoff Kootenay District Council

CRANBROOK-Job action is being contemplated next week in School District #5 (Southest Kootenay) by CUPE Local 4165 education workers. Seventy-two hours strike noticed served by CUPE.

Cupe National representative Keith Neilson in making the announcement said that bargaining was progressing “but has hit a bit of a snag.”

In serving 72 hours strike notice today (December 13, 2013), Neilson pointed out that both the school board and the union “are still exploring ways to get the deal done.”

To help get to a quick settlement, CUPE 4165 also announced plans for job action.

“It is our intention to put pressure on the Employer immediately since the deadline for completion of local tables is December 20^th.” Neilson stated.

Job action being contemplated next week by CUPE 4165, if no deal is reached is follows:

1. Tuesday, December 17^th: services will be withdrawn for that day only from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at all facilities outside of the City of Cranbrook – meaning in the communities of Jaffray, Grasmere, Fernie, Sparwood and Elkford.
2. Wednesday, December 18^th: services will be withdrawn for that day only from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at all facilities in the City of Cranbrook.

“As per the BC Federation’s picketing policy, we look forward to all sisters and brothers respecting our picket lines.”, Neilson said in announcing the job action plans.

What Does The Spleen Do?-

Posted on December 14, 2013 by CanucksBanter

A Parody of “The Fox” by Ylvis.

This video was created for the 107th Annual Second Year Show by the Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HMS/HSDM) class of 2016.

Published on Dec 8, 2013

B.C.’s Longest Ongoing Labour Dispute Continues As Christmas Nears

Posted on December 14, 2013 by CanucksBanter

After more than seven months of locking out CUPE 389 members , it seems that the board of directors at the North Shore Winter Club in North Vancouver, B.C., are prepared to act like Grinch’s this Christmas and continue the labour dispute.

Mediation talks took place Monday Dec 2 but CUPE National Representative John Strohmaier said that the NSWC came back to negotiations with their most insulting offer yet.

“The union was cautiously optimistic that we would be able to reach an agreement this week and we are disappointed that the NSWC has decided to continue this senseless lockout,” says Strohmaier. “We trimmed our package down considerably and were ready to negotiate a fair and reasonable settlement. With the package they presented the NSWC made it clear that they didn’t have those same intentions.”

Strohmaier says the club insists on slashing the unionized workforce in half and contracting out the work performed by the employees who will be terminated.

“The North Shore Winter Club is offering less and less to employees who have been locked out for 7 months. We were hopeful that the new board of directors elected in September would seek a resolution to this dispute. Unfortunately this board is just as aggressive and hostile to its employees.”

Video made after more than 150 days of being locked out, on September 30, 2013 CUPE members from across the metro area came together to send a message to the General manager and Board of directors of the North Shore Winter club.

Canada Post Changes Reaction; Canada Post Cutbacks and Deceptions

Posted on December 11, 2013 by CanucksBanter

John Bail National Director -C.U.P.W. Pacific Region

Canada Post Cutbacks and Deceptions

By Lone Cloud Hopper

Canada Post is cutting back on service and on jobs and, as usual, they’re not being entirely honest about it. Although it’s true that many people are using emails today and therefore there is less profitability in surface mail, parcel delivery has exploded into an industry of its own. People are ordering things from Amazon, eBay and many websites today rather than going out to the mall. Many parcel delivery companies have popped up to compete with the mail service for a slice of the pie. Canada Post fought back by purchasing Purolator in an attempt to corner the market.

CUPW, the postal union, has made a number of suggestions to improve service and marketability, including the provision of banking services at Canada Post. This has worked very well for postal services in other countries, but Canada Post is too proud to take advice from a union which it has always fought to break apart and get rid of.

The goal here is simply to increase profit. They are claiming that sales are down for 2013, and that might be, if they calculate them before their busy season (Christmas!) Even by their own estimates, they made over 100 million dollars in profit last year. They’ve cried red before, anything to get the media and government on board to support their stripping back of union staff.

Deepak Chopra was placed as CEO of Canada Post by Stephen Harper, so when you hear Canada Post, or Lisa Raitt, claiming that these cutbacks are to “protect taxpayers,” you can guess where that idea comes from. Yes, keep firing taxpayers! That’ll really help us and our economy!

Canada Post not only wants to remove delivery jobs but inside sorting jobs as well, replacing well-paid postmasters with minimum-wage-paid employees at local chain stores. Gee, that sounds safe, doesn’t it? And how concerned can Canada Post be about money when they spend millions of dollars on a ridiculous reaching device which would not work for delivering small parcels to boxes and especially while in bad weather, and by purchasing right-hand-drive vehicles for employees? All this expense was done to deal with ergonomic problems, but the extent to which they’ve taken it, to design a hand-held contraption which has no application in reality, and then to redesign it, just makes their bottom line sound frivolous to them.

Now, elderly and handicapped people will have to travel further to get to their mail. People will have parcel cards in their community mailboxes and not even know it. The union had suggested increasing customer service, delivering more parcels to customers’ doors to provide superior service to their competitors. But Canada Post has its mind set: CUT UNION JOBS, CUT SERVICE. Cutting service and raising stamp prices is not great business sense, but then maybe Canada Post doesn’t feel too concerned about their competition after all.

LINKS/SOURCES:
Canada Post to phase out urban home mail delivery
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/…
Canada Post tests right-hand-drive cars
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-…
RSMC Vehicle Types
(Union page on vehicles changes issues)
http://www.cupw.ca/index.cfm/ci_id/14…
RSMC Reaching Device – Update 10/12
(An idealic demonstration of the device)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUgd9l…
2012 Annual Report
http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/about…
Canada Post profit evaporates in 2011
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canad…
Canada Post Reports Highest Profits in History (2011)
http://www.cupw.ca/index.cfm/ci_id/13…
Banking on a Future for Canada Post
(CUPW Proposes Money-Making Strategies for Canada Post)
http://www.cupw.ca/index.cfm/ci_id/14…

IBEW 213 & COPE 378 Locked Out FortisBC Workers Rally Held In Trail B.C.

Posted on December 7, 2013 by CanucksBanter

December 7, 2013 By Andrew Chernoff, West Kootenay Labour Council

TRAIL-IBEW 213 and COPE 378 locked out FortisBC workers, labour and community supporters along with distinguished dignitaries gathered at the FortisBC office in downtown Trail, B.C. on December 7, 2013.

Jim Sinclair, president BC Federation of Labour speaking at support rally for locked out FortisBC workers in Trail B.C. on December 7, 2013.

Those at the rally braved wind and cold temperatures as cold as –16 degrees Celsius, listening todistinguished speakers demanding that FortisBC do what it did with COPE 378 FortisBC inside workers last week——bargain in good faith a new and fair collective agreement—–and end the six month lock out imposed by them on June 26.

Speaker after speaker…….

Jim Sinclair, president of the BC Federation of Labour;
David Black, president of COPE 378;
Katrina Conroy, NDP MLA Kootenay West;
Susan Lambert, past president of the B.C. Teachers Federation;
Andy Davidoff, president of the Kootenay-Columbia Teachers’ Union;
Rod Russell, IBEW 213 business manager
Armindo deMedeiros, president USW 480

—–all encouraging locked out FortisBC workers to continue standing their ground.

The speakers also appealed to FortisBC locked out worker supporters in the community and the House of Labour, to continue demanding FortisBC do the respectful and dignified thing: sit down and negotiate in good faith a new and fair collective agreement, and end this lockout that is now in its sixth month.

Unless a Grinch’s heart grows, this story of 225 locked out electrical workers won’t have a very merry ending. The latest round of negotiations between FortisBC and its electrical workers failed earlier in the week; all but ensuring the workers will be locked out for the holiday season.

Two days of talks broke off on December 5, 2013 with no end in sight for the nearly six month lockout that began on June 26.

For 225 workers across the southern interior who haven’t seen a paycheque in six months, Christmas is going to be really tough. For FortisBC which has saved over $7 million dollars and is only raising rates another 19% by 2018, obviously Christmas doesn’t matter much. Except of course for its CEO, who will take in another $1.4 million this year. He’ll certainly be jolly, while his workers are freezing and his customers are paying more.

Since locking out its electrical employees FortisBC has continued to only add requirements for a deal to be done. Negotiations collapsed today because the company will not budge from two significant demands: a mandatory compressed work week which entails longer working days for less money, and the Union’s surrender of its legal right to labour action in the System Control Centre.

After suffering six months without pay, the Union wanted its members back to work so at least Christmas could be a happy time spent with their family. Seeking to be flexible, three proposals were brought to the table. One was the same, identical deal FortisBC signed yesterday with COPE 378, its office workers, and the company said no. The second proposal was a basic, plain back-to-work agreement, that included only minimal wage increases of 2.5%-2%-2%-2.5%-2.5%, no other changes, and the company said no.

An IBEW 213 statement released after talks broke off on Thursday, stated:

Though it would be hard for workers with young families, the third proposal included a compromise on the mandatory compressed work week. All workers would be forced to be on the compressed work week if 50%+1 of the crew voted for it or if 75% of the workers’ headquarters voted for it. The company had already agreed to a 5% premium as compensation for working the longer 10 hour day which would significantly encourage workers to vote for it. However FortisBC rejected this compromise.

If these demands of a compressed work week and giving up right to strike were so important for FortisBC, why didn’t the company bring them up earlier? Why did FortisBC only make these demands months after its workers were locked out? It would appear FortisBC isn’t interested in a deal or compromise; it just wants its workers locked out until FortisBC can get whatever it wants.”

More pictures of rally: