Category Archives: Solidarity

War of words continues in FortisBC lockout, union says company saving $7 Million in wages

Posted on by

by Bruce Fuhr on 01 Dec 2013 http://thenelsondaily.com

Members of the IBEW say FortisBC should pass on savings due to the lockout back to customers. — The Nelson Daily file photo

Members of the IBEW say FortisBC should pass on savings due to the lockout back to customers. — The Nelson Daily file photo

The war of word continues to be exchanged between the two sides in the labour dispute at FortisBC.

The locked out International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 213 said in press release FortisBC has saved $7 Million from not paying wages and should not be granted an increase to raise rates by the BC Utilities Commission.

“Considering FortisBC has saved millions of dollars from not paying its locked out workers, these rate increases do not seem fair or right,” said Rod Russell, Assistant Business Manager of IBEW Local 213.

“FortisBC should not be profiting from locking out its workers, especially since its billing customers for services they are not receiving.”

The IBEW Local 213 said in an October 18 submission to the BC Utilities Commission FortisBC outlined its five year plan to raise rates by 3.3%, 3.6%, 3.6%, 3.6% and 3.6%; through compounding these increases will make FortisBC rates 19% higher than they are now.

However, speaking on behalf of FortisBC, Director of Communications Joyce Wagenaar said, although labour costs have decreased, there have been increases in other areas such as “such as management and exempt staff covering work usually done by IBEW employees and legal costs.” 

“We’ve provided these updates to the BCUC as part of our annual rate setting process,” Wagenaar told The Nelson Daily.

“As part of this rate setting process, we provided a five-year plan to the BCUC that anticipates electricity rate increases of 17.7 per cent over five years. “

“These increases are required to make necessary investments in the electrical system and to address rising costs,” Wagenaar added.

“This plan does not factor in BC Hydro increases or the addition of any major projects, which are taken into account during the annual rate setting process.”

FortisBC managers have been performing the work of unionized workers since the company locked out IBEW Local 213 June 26.

More than 200 employees (all with FortisBC Electric) that includes electricians, linemen, millwrights, meter readers and office staff have been affected by the lockout that stretches from Princeton to Creston and up through the Okanagan Valley to Winfield.

FortisBC and IBEW Local 213 have been without a contract since January 31, 2013.

Russell said FortisBC is doing a less than perfect job servicing customers during the lockout.

Not only are customers getting less services from management staff, they are paying the same monthly costs as FortisBC estimates electricity consumption through the dispute instead of reading meters to obtain the correct charge.

“A lot of people are struggling to pay their electricity bills and that’s including FortisBC’s own locked out workers,” Russell explained.

“But not only has FortisBC locked them out in the cold and deprived them of a paycheque, it’s raising their bills too.

“We do not know how FortisBC intends to correct customer billing given they have their two tiered rate structure and have not been reading meters consistently.”

Waganeer disputes the union claims saying the company has been following the Essential Services Order won by the IBEW through application to the B.C. Labour Relations Board, which restricts company managers from reading customer meters,

“Since June 26, we have been estimating customers’ electricity use,” said Waganeer.

“Our estimates are based on historical usage at their address.”

Waganeersaid for new customers without any historical information, FortisBC uses a comparison based on the region where they live.

“Since September, our ability to read meters has increased but we are assessing and prioritizing based on the limited resources we have available to fulfill these duties,” Waganeer said.

“At any time, if customers feel that their bill does not reflect their use, or that energy use has changed, please call our contact center at 1-866-436-7847.”

Russell said the IBEW Local 213 has been contacted directly by customers asking if the union would lead a class action suit to recover these funds. 

IBEW Local 213 is looking into a class action suit feeling FortisBC should ensure customers are not overbilled. 

The lockout entered its sixth month last week.

No new talks are planned as the sides are spending more time at the B.C. Labour Board than at the negotiating table.

The last labour dispute at the power company was in 2001.

The job action in 2001 lasted almost four months.

Kootenay Lake only school district not funding CUPE pay increases

Posted on by
Posted on November 25, 2013

Kirsten Hildebrand – Nelson Star Nov 22, 2013

Kootenay Lake school district stands by its inability to meet a provincial directive requiring local funding of CUPE pay increases. They say it can

Kootenay Lake school district stands by its inability to meet a provincial directive requiring local funding of CUPE pay increases. They say it can’t be done without impacting core services.— image credit: file photo

Kootenay Lake school board is the last hold out in the province when it comes to approving the CUPE bargaining provincial framework savings plan and that doesn’t sit well with several union members present at the November 19 board meeting.

CUPE workers in the district attended the meeting held at the local board office, some via teleconference from Creston, with interest and apparent frustration asking the board why it was the only district in the province not settling negotiations.

“We’re the only district in the province standing up,” responded acting chair Rebecca Huscroft.

CUPE locals throughout the province are in negotiations with local boards after the province negotiated a wage increase averting a September strike.

The Ministry of Education is asking local boards to find the money within their existing budgets without impacting core services. Kootenay Lake school board is asking CUPE to advocate with them and write a letter to the Ministry.

“For them [the Ministry of Education] to say we can’t cut services to pay for an increase is a bit of a joke,” said Huscroft addressing employees’ concerns. “We are the only district in the province advocating right now and we understand how this must look to you guys.”

Huscroft said trustees value the work of CUPE employees but increases shouldn’t come “on the backs of the board and the district.”

“We stand 100 per cent behind CUPE getting a wage increase,” she said. “But we want to send a message about how do we address reduced funding year after year.”

Natasha Morley, who speaks for the local union, said CUPE is aware of the school board’s request to join them in calling on the government to fund the wage increases and oppose the provincial savings plan requirements.

“CUPE and CUPE locals are on record as supporting full funding from the provincial government for CUPE wage increases,” she said. “Our commitment to full funding is not in question. However, our priority is a collective agreement for Local 748 members that includes the provincial framework agreement. We will not waver from that.”

The tentative provincial framework agreement included an end rate 3.5 percent wage increase over two years. The agreement provides a one per cent increase retroactive to July 1, two per cent on February 1, 2014, and 0.5 per cent on May 1, 2014.

Once settlements are achieved, they will be voted on by the memberships of the respective CUPE locals. There are 57 CUPE across BC, representing 27,000 educational support workers. The deadline for ratification of all local agreements is December 20.

Cheap labour and the lessons of the Plaza Hotel strike

Posted on by

Robyn Benson By Robyn Benson on August 23, 2013   http://www.aec-cea.ca

 

plaza hotel strike.JPG

Who are those people pounding the pavement outside Toronto’s Plaza Hotel, whom the owner called “animals?” They are workers with little or no hope for the long-term, decently-paid jobs that many of us take for granted, living a precarious existence. If you want to know how many of them there are these days, take one Plaza Hotel and multiply by a very big number.

The low-wage workers at the Plaza are at least unionized. Largely due to their Steelworkers Union and to the Ontario Federation of Labour, the public is becoming more aware of the appalling working conditions there.

But this is just the tip of the cheap-labour iceberg.

I’ve posted before about the Temporary Foreign Workers program, a part of this new race to the bottom, in which the Harper government has been complicit. A victory or two have been won in that area, but there is much more to the problem than offshore workers entering Canada on a government program. In some ways, that was just a matter of domestic Canadian cheap labour being edged out of jobs by foreign cheaper labour.

Take the North American fast-food service industry, for example. It used to be that this was a good sector for young people to find a job for a while, and then move on. Now more adults than teens are asking if you want fries with that, and they’re in it for the long haul.

The new employees of this largely non-union sector are more experienced and better educated than formerly, but their wages and benefits don’t reflect that. Small wonder, as we have seen recently in Halifax with coffee-shop baristas, and in the US with employees of McDonald’s and other franchises, that these workers are beginning to look to unionization—and a substantial increase in the minimum wage—as a way of making their circumstances comparatively less precarious.

Would this make hamburgers, coffee and fried chicken too expensive? That’s always the scare-story put about by the anti-union types. But it’s not founded upon fact:

Several studies show that raising the minimum wage would have minimal effects on the industry as a whole. One letter signed by more than 100 economists and published by the University of Massachusetts said that raising the minimum wage to $10.50 would increase the price of a Big Mac by a nickel. Another study shows that doubling the salaries and benefits of all of McDonald’s employees would add 68 cents to each Big Mac.

Perhaps one of the more comical aspects of the corporate fightback was the spectacle of McDonald’s solemnly informing its low-wage employees how to budget. The bosses’ scheme works perfectly—if the minimum wage is doubled, and you can do without water, clothing, gas, heat and child care.

Are low wages the natural cost of working for a living wage in the service sector these days? Well, no:

Consider Costco and Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club, which compete fiercely on low-price merchandise. Among warehouse retailers, Costco…is number one, accounting for about 50% of the market. Sam’s Club…is number two, with about 40% of the market.

…A 2005 New York Times article by Steven Greenhouse reported that at $17 an hour, Costco’s average pay is 72% higher than Sam’s Club’s ($9.86 an hour).

On the benefits side, 82% of Costco employees have health-insurance coverage, compared with less than half at Wal-Mart.

…In return for its generous wages and benefits, Costco gets one of the most loyal and productive workforces in all of retailing, and, probably not coincidentally, the lowest shrinkage (employee theft) figures in the industry….Costco’s stable, productive workforce more than offsets its higher costs.

A cheap labour strategy doesn’t work. It costs just about everybody. Costco knows this from experience, and has resisted calls to lower its wages and benefits.

So the push-back against impoverishing workers is not only a union concern, although we can certainly play a lead role in it. But we in the labour movement can’t do that by focusing too narrowly. We need to be part of a wider movement to defend the right to a living, dignified wage and secure employment for everyone. After all, it’s our whole society that is at stake here—and surely that makes it everybody’s fight.

Solidarity served at BBQ rally hosted by CUPE leaders

Posted on by

Aug 14, 2013    http://cupe.ca

The Bonfield Township Council meeting was cancelled by the mayor and the forecasted rain never came, but CUPE leaders led by Charles Fleury, CUPE national secretary-treasurer, Candace Rennick, CUPE Ontario secretary-treasurer and Henri Giroux, president of North Bay CUPE District Council along with CUPE members and Bonfield residents, did come out on Tuesday afternoon to show support for the striking CUPE 4616-2 members at a solidarity BBQ.

“You have the support of over 600,000 CUPE members across Canada,” said Charles Fleury, CUPE National Secretary-Treasurer, bringing greetings and support for the 16 municipal workers on strike in Bonfield. “CUPE supports your fight against concessions and we are with you every step of the way.”

Echoing brother Fleury’s remarks, Candace Rennick, CUPE Ontario secretary treasurer said: “We will stand by you and provide you with all the resources you need to win this fight.” Henri Giroux, who helped organize the event, also thanked the community for their continued support for the striking workers.

More than 150 people, from Bonfield residents to CUPE members from across the province, to local union members, brought solidarity messages and let the strikers know that they have the full support of their Ontario brothers and sisters.

Garth Pigeau, President of CUPE 4616-2 was encouraged by the support shown to his striking members and said, “Solidarity, this is what the union is all about.”

The workers have been on strike since August 1, 2013.