Dear Editor:
I am writing about the current strike of employees at the United Church’s Naramata Centre.
I am the President of CUPE 608, the union representing these employees.
We are taking job action to protect jobs in the face of a management approach that has treated loyal and long-term employees in an uncaring manner.
We also fail to see how the approach the current management have taken will fix the problems facing the centre.
When the centre first gave notice to its employees last December that it intended to contract out half or more of the approximately 30 jobs at the centre, staff were devastated, and shocked.
There had been no attempt to jointly solve problems. The management style has meant that unionized employees at the centre have been treated as the problem, never as part of the solution.
The CUPE members who work at the centre care deeply about its future.
They observe that in the past number of years it has been chronically understaffed, forcing excessive amounts of overtime and undermining guest services. There has also been a lack of a vigorous promotional plan, with the resulting stagnation and loss of revenue.
It is typical of the current management that despite having their employees off the job and a picket line up around the centre operations, they continue to say they can perform “business as usual” and attempt to convince themselves and others that they can avoid an impact on church centre guests.
Let’s be clear, the centre is in a financial mess largely of its own making and has suffered from serious mismanagement, particularly in the past five years.
The way that the current centre management has handled the proposed contracting out and bargaining have only made a bad situation worse. There are many partners in the centre, including the B.C. Conference of the United Church, which has provided significant financial assistance.
The employees of Naramata Centre feel disrespected and cast aside by the centre management and the United Church.
The problems facing the United Church Centre are real. But they will not be solved by the road we are on.
Brianne Hillson
President
CUPE Local 608
Naramata
