Union to vote on pay hikes for executives
Pay hikes being considered as members face salary freezes, possible layoffs
Members of a union in stalled negotiations with the University of Saskatchewan over voluntary buyouts are expected to vote next month on proposals that would hike the union president’s salary and almost double a stipend paid monthly to its executives.
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) local 1975 proposed the changes to its bylaws on April 27, about a month after the U of S cut $12.2 million from its operating budget in response to a five-per-cent cut to its $318-million provincial grant.
“The timing is incorrect right now,” said Glenn Ross, who joined the 2,000-member union in 1988 and spent about seven years as its president in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He no longer sits on its executive.
“We’re facing zero, zero, zero (wage increases),” Ross continued. “Possible rollbacks, possible job cuts. So it looks like the wrong time … when other members are going to be getting zero increases for the next three years.”
CUPE 1975 and the U of S are at an impasse over a proposed voluntary buyout program aimed at helping the university reduce its $294-million salary and benefit burden. The talks stalled because of a dispute over contract workers replacing union jobs.
The Administrative and Supervisory Personnel Association (ASPA), a CUPE offshoot that represents around 1,000 U of S employees, agreed to a similar buyout deal earlier this week. Its president said he expects layoffs will follow.
CUPE 1975 president Craig Hannah said the bylaw amendments are “an internal process that have to be reviewed and amended from time to time.” He said the bylaws were last reviewed in 2012. He declined further comment.
If approved, one proposed CUPE 1975 amendment would raise the monthly honorarium for its president, two vice-presidents, recording secretary, secretary-treasurer and grievance chair to $375 from $200 — a net annual increase of $2,100 per person.
The amendment would also replace a $40 monthly stipend paid to executive members-at-large with a $420 semi-annual stipend, for a net annual increase of $360 per person, according to union documents obtained by the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
The increases “reflect the increased costs to executive members as well as to reflect the (Canada Revenue Agency) requirements to pay taxes on honorariums,” according to the documents.
Ross said while honorariums in the range of $375, which are intended to compensate full-time employees for additional union work, are not uncommon among unions, the timing is suspect “given the financial situation at the university.”
The second proposed amendment would lead to CUPE 1975 paying to “top up” the president’s salary to the top of the next pay scale above his or her current scale. CUPE 1975 has six pay scales; maximum salaries range from $36,160 to $82,636.
CUPE members are expected to vote on the proposals at a special meeting on June 13. Ross said while he has not heard any union members express support for either proposal, he regards the timing of both as troubling.
“It’s not about serving the membership anymore; it’s about serving themselves.”
It looks like the wrong time … when other members are going to be getting zero increases for the next three years.