Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

CUPE 2010 members welcome provincial leader to their cause.

The president of BC’s largest public sector union will be meeting

with CUPE 2010 members today to offer his support.

"CUPE 2010 members are fighting for something that all workers in Whistler deserve, a living allowance that respects the high cost of living and raising a family in a resort town," says CUPE BC President Barry O’Neill.

Whistler’s 29 by-law officers, wastewater and utility workers who make up CUPE 2010 began job action last week.

They are asking the municipality for a $4,000 living allowance and a benefits package that would put them on par with other municipal workers.

O’Neill hopes his presence will draw attention to the local union’s struggle.

"This is more about union-busting and an ideology that wants to keep the workers that build, maintain and run this community silent and without a voice," he said in a statement.

"We’ll mobilize the whole labour movement to make sure people’s rights to join and participate in unions are protected and respected in Whistler."

O’Neill also hopes to meet with councillor Ken Melamed while he is here.

CUPE 2010 president Peter Davidson said support has been offered from within the resort and across Canada.

"The response from organized labour across the country has been overwhelming and we are just trying to figure out how to use it all," said Davidson.

Currently the union, which has been without a contract since December 2002, is working to rule but Davidson said he is not ruling out an escalation in the coming days.