CNC support staff could hit the bricks tomorrow
Support staff at the College of New Caledonia have issued 72-hour strike notice and are planning a full-scale walkout that would cancel all classes at its six northern B.C. campuses on Tuesday.
The 345 members of CUPE Local 4951 have been without a contract since June 2010 and are prepared to walk off the job unless they can get back to the bargaining table in a new round of negotiations to avert a strike.
“Anything can change between now and then and that is our hope,” said CUPE 4951 president Lily Bachand. “I’d like the government to come back to us and say, “Let’s talk.’ That would make us feel better.
“The sad part is it has gotten to this point. Two per cent is not a lot of money and the government has already given two per cent to support staff [at UNBC], but not us. They are saying we have to find savings in the budget to give us a raise, but did the government find savings in their budget when they gave themselves a raise?”
Support staff from four CUPE locals at three B.C. universities, including UNBC and UBC, ratified four-year contracts on Tuesday, which specified no wage increases for the first two years and two per cent increases in 2012-13 and 2013-14.
Bachand has received assurances from the CNC Faculty Association that instructors will not cross picket lines, if it comes down to that this week.
“It’s on our backs that this is being done and, even worse, it’s on the backs of the students,” said Bachand. “CNC management can do nothing right now, they are a pawn for the government. It’s got to come from the top down. Talks broke off on the fifth of November and there’s been nothing since.”
Under terms of the government’s cooperative gains mandate, public sector employers such as colleges are required to find savings in their operating budgets to pay for wage increases for the support workers, as long as existing services are maintained.
“Everybody is doing their best to come up with a solution,” said CNC president John Bowman.
Facing a $2.3 million deficit in March, CNC governors approved a two per cent tuition increase to generate $100,000 in additional funding, after management found an additional $2 million in budget savings for the 2012-13 fiscal year.
If there is a strike, some CNC support staff who carry out essential services such as security and building operation will remain on the job.
CUPE support staff at Camosun College in Victoria, Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, College of the Rockies in Cranbrook and North Island College in Port Alberni have also issued 72-hour strike notice, which gives them the legal right to walk off the job as early as Monday. Job action has already taken place the past two weeks at Vancouver Community College and another all-campus walkout at VCC is planned for today.
“Job action is very much a part of the bargaining process; however, I am hopeful that the parties will be able to reach a negotiated settlement,” said Advanced Education, Innovation and Technology Minister John Yap, in an email to The Citizen.
“It’s important for the details of the ne- gotiations to remain with the parties at the table. Essential services levels have been negotiated with the union.”
All CUPE unions now in strike positions are in agreement their fight is not with management at their respective colleges, and are blaming the provincial government for its refusal to grant their wage concessions.
“We have been working closely with our employers to do everything in our power to settle this round of bargaining,” said CUPE’s B.C. colleges co-ordinator, Ian McLean. “We have met and worked with those employers over the past two years and proposed settlements in line with all the other recent public sector contracts. We have worked with the assistance of a mediator to try to streamline the process. To date all of these efforts have failed because we are told by our employers that they don’t have a mandate to bargain from the government.
“The only reason we don’t have a deal is because the B.C. Liberals have dropped the ball. We remain committed to negotiating a fair and reasonable contract, and our door is always open, but this government’s interference in collective bargaining has pushed us to the point where our only alternative is job action.”