A new four-year collective agreement between the City of Cranbrook and CUPE Local 2090 was announced on Monday evening following city council by Mayor Lee Pratt.
The new deal, which is retroactive to March 1, 2017 when the last agreement expired, will run till February 2021 with annual wage increases at 2.0 per cent, 2.0 per cent, 2.2 per cent and 2.3 per cent.
In a press release, the city says the new agreement was negotiated through a collaborative process, with mutually beneficial terms.
“I would like to thank CUPE and City management staff for the professional way these negotiations were undertaken,” says Mayor Lee Pratt. “Reaching an agreement of this length will make sure we continue to have stable, quality services for all of our customers, which continues to be a priority for us.”
CUPE 2090 members passed a ratification vote in December, while city council did the same on Monday during an in-camera session. The city says the agreement improves employee safety, wellness and benefits, while establishing policies for sustainable operations.
“The union is pleased that an agreement has been reached and we look forward to working with the City to continue building our collaborative relationship,” says Chris Ellis, President of CUPE Local 2090. “Both bargaining committees worked hard in reaching the settlement, but I especially want to thank the City’s CAO David Kim for his progressive approach to negotiations.”
The last agreement, a five-year deal, was signed in 2013 under former Cranbrook mayor Wayne Stetski.
Approximately 150 workers are associated with CUPE 2090, who provide public services such as road maintenance, garbage collection, water and waste water operations, parks and recreation services, bylaw services, planning services, engineering services, RCMP support, and administrative services at City Hall and our other municipal facilities.
Pratt said the length of the contract was important to allow the city to plan for the future with some certainty.
“For the city, especially, we can prepare now with some things that we’ve got in the works,” Pratt said. “We’ve got a number of ideas that we’re going to put into place and with the two or three year agreement, it makes it,’ Well, do we really want to do that? What happens next time around?’
“This time now, we know we’ve got the length of the contract, it gives us some time to get things implemented and test it out and if it works the way we think it will, it’ll be good for both parties going forward.”
