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Mayor faces off with unionized workers in council chambers

CUPE Local 2010 rallies support from around the province
cupe_marching
CUPE members marching to Council Meeting

A public question and answer period at Monday's council meeting quickly turned into a heckling and jeering session when union workers packed into the crowded room demanding answers from Whistler's mayor.

Riled up and emotionally charged from a rally outside municipal hall, roughly 50 workers came from near and far to lend their support to the 29 RMOW workers who are part of the Canadian Union of Public Employees fighting the municipality for more money and no rollback of benefits.

CUPE Local 2010 represents Whistler's wastewater treatment workers, utilities workers and bylaw officers. They have been without a collective agreement for more than two years and have been on limited strike action since mid-February as the talks between the two sides have stonewalled.

Cries of "shame" echoed around the room when Mayor Hugh O'Reilly refused to be drawn into a discussion about the stalled negotiations at the public meeting.

"You know the rules, right?" he asked CUPE Local 2010 President Pete Davidson, cutting him off as he began to ask a question.

"There's a legitimate process (to deal with the negotiations)."

After the meeting O'Reilly further explained his position.

"They have their program to apply pressure on us and that's fine," he said. "My response is that you don't negotiate in a public forum. That's not how negotiations go. They know that and we know that."

That didn't stop Davidson from getting up to speak out about the faltering negotiations. Nor did it stop Jim Sinclair, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour representing 750,000 workers, from adding his two cents demanding the municipality respect its workers.

"We will make sure at the end of the day that respect is won," he said.

Even thinly veiled threats from the CUPE B.C. president, Barry O'Neill, failed to elicit the response that CUPE wanted from the mayor, namely that he call municipal staff back to the bargaining table.

"Mr. Mayor I hope you can come to some resolve… because this is really not a struggle of Local 2010 any longer," stated an impassioned O'Neill. "If you think in Whistler that you can take on the labour movement in this community then I wish you the best of luck… (you're in) for the fight of your life my friend."

Talks between the two sides stalled more than two months ago when CUPE members voted to take limited job action in response to a written offer from the municipality.

The union workers are looking for a $4,000 cost of living allowance to offset the high cost of living in a resort community. They are also fighting against the benefit rollbacks in the municipality's written offer.

Monday's rally was called after two months of arguing about who left the bargaining table first. Each side maintains they are waiting for the other to call them back for negotiations.

Davidson said they were hoping to get the mayor to agree to binding arbitration, during which an independent mediator or panel would hear both sides and then make a ruling.

O'Reilly said at the meeting that the municipality would consider mediation, a process in which an impartial mediator or a panel would intervene to listen to both sides and encourage a resolution. On two previous occasions the municipality has suggested using mediation services provided by the Labour Relations Board. The union rejected this suggestion both times.

Though there was no resolution to Monday's faceoff, Davidson said the rally and the fact that other union members came from out of town to support their cause was an emotional boost.

"I'm overwhelmed," he said, as pink CUPE flags waved in the air at the rally meeting place in Lot 4. "It's nice to know that we're not alone up here."

Written placards showed support for the Whistler workers from CUPE members in Vancouver and Squamish. Some workers came from as far away as Nanaimo said Davidson.

Sinclair encouraged the Whistler workers to stay strong and stick together.

"I think (this rally) is all part of the process of getting this issue out to the public, of getting public support for people here and sending a message to city council that the rest of the labour movement is watching and these folks aren't alone," he said.

"Because at the end of the day that's the worst thing that could happen, is that people feel alone. They're not…. And these folks will get our support if this goes any further."

Sinclair also spoke about the growing economic pressures on the workers in Whistler fuelled by the Olympics. The Olympics will drive up real estate and exacerbate the cost of living issues he added.

The issue of affordability was put to council that same evening by O'Neill.

The mayor explained that Whistler has a successful resident housing program through which it houses 75 per cent of its workers, with plans to build more in the future.

That's not enough for CUPE Local 2010.

"Mr. Mayor, it's important for you to know that we do not believe that your strategy is working very well," said O'Neill.

Despite the heated council meeting O'Reilly said he is confident there will be a resolution with the unionized workers.

"We've told them that what we've proposed, it's negotiable," he said after the meeting. "We will get to an agreement. Absolutely."

For the union workers who filed out of the council chambers after the public question and answer period, a resolution seemed further away than ever.

"We know we're right," said Davidson the next day.

"It's just going to escalate from here."