PRINCE ALBERT - The union representing Prince Albert city inside workers has voted to reject a tentative agreement.
It was announced Wednesday morning that CUPE 882 members voted 81 percent in favour of rejecting the tentative agreement.
“We hope this will send a strong message to city council,” said Mira Lewis, CUPE National Representative. “Your workers are standing united and demanding respect.”
The vote means that the job action that been going on since August 10, and that saw a full withdrawal of services Sept. 11, will go on.
Both sides had seemingly worked out a tentative agreement in late September, but the deal unravelled after the city revealed plans to implement structural changes and maintain in place a call centre utilized during the job action. That prompted CUPE to call off its ratification vote and they also filed an Unfair Labour Practice application over the issue.
In a statement Oct. 4, the City of Prince Albert denied claims by the union that the City had violated the Employment Act by creating a call centre. “The union characterized the change as ‘sweeping changes’ when in reality the immediate implementation of the call centre will result in no job loss, no wage loss, no change to hours of work and no change to job classifications or job descriptions.”
Prior to the latest vote this week, Lewis stated the union “still has grave concerns about the proposed call centre, and structural changes the city wants to implement without negotiating with the union or receiving feedback from the impacted workers.”
The union leadership opted to let their members decide by voting on the collective agreement, and the vote took place Tuesday.
In a statement, the union has also taken issue to comments they attributed to Mayor Greg Dionne at city council on Tuesday, for saying that the ball was in their court and that a no vote would mean going back to the bargaining table.
“We hope that administration takes this to heart and immediately returns to the bargaining table prepared to offer a meaningful deal,” Lewis said in a statement.
CUPE says its bargaining committee will be reaching out to the city and to special mediator Kristin Anderson, Executive Director of Labour Relations, to set bargaining dates.
