This Friday (July 31) will mark the 12th week that the United Steelworkers Local 1-1937 (USW) have been on a 72-hour strike notice. However, it looks like the looming strike notice will likely be coming to an end next month, as the union recently voted in favour of a new agreement, which is now pending official approval until the CVRD board meeting on August 12.
USW issued the 72-hour strike notice on May 8, though no job action has taken place. The union represents 50 CVRD employees at Cowichan Lake Recreation, the Meade Creek facility and numerous water and sewage facility. The disputes centred around several issues, including the desire for “seniority language changes” in their contracts, additional benefits and statutory pay for casual employees, wage increases and monetary benefits for ticket-holding employees.
The union voted earlier this month on a new agreement presented by the CVRD, with approximately 75 per cent of USW membership voting in favour, according to USW business agent Chris Cinkant. Next month’s CVRD board meeting will likely result in this new agreement being ratified.
“It’s basically done, we’re just waiting for [CVRD] board approval,” Cinkant said. “After that, it’s a signed deal.”
Cinkant said that the new agreement addresses much of what the union asked for, such as stipends for tickets, better language in regards to casual employees and “modest monetary increases” in regards to certain jobs and for ticket holders.
“We wanted to have casual employees who work regular hours to turn into jobs,” Cinkant said. “The CVRD have said that would happen. It’s not guaranteed, but we have no reason not to believe it.”
Another concern for union members, Cinkant said, was the zero per cent pay increase for the first six months of employment. While this was not addressed in the new agreement, he said that USW is planning on bringing the issue back to the table when USW contracts expire in a year and a half.
“We’ve been negotiating for over a year and we have another year and a half until our contracts are up — then it’s right back to the bargaining table,” Cinkant said. “We’ve identified all the issues we need to tackle for the next round of negotiations, which we’re preparing for now.”
Earlier this month, prior to the recent USW vote, CVRD’s deputy CAO Jacob Ellis expressed confidence that the new agreement would allow the CVRD and USW to move forward.
“Both sides are confident that the deal reached represents the best possible result that could be achieved without resorting to job action, and have agreed to unanimously recommend the deal be ratified,” he said in an email.
The Gazette will be providing updates to the USW/CVRD dispute as they become available.
