VANCOUVER – The Universities Coordinated Bargaining Committee wants answers on the provincial government’s latest assault on post secondary jobs. UCBC members from CUPE university locals at UBC, UNBC, SFU, UVic, Royal Roads and TRU met Monday to discuss the implications of the province’s Administrative Service Delivery Transformation Project.
The project had been quietly running over the summer with an extremely short timeline and apparent plans to implement it as early as this September. While management positions appear safe from scrutiny, many CUPE jobs are targeted, including facilities, maintenance, grounds, recruitment, benefit plans, printers, procurement and IT. The government has refused to comment on the project claiming it hasn’t made any final decisions yet.
Presentations were made by CUPE’s BC Colleges Co-ordinator Ian McLean on the potential impact on colleges and CUPE’s BC K-12 Co-ordinator Bill Pegler reported on a similar “shared services” project underway in that sector.
Local presidents spoke of the project’s potential for cuts to services, loss of jobs, the impact on communities and on the very future of public post secondary education. One CUPE local president warned “make no mistake, ‘shared services’ means privatization and our jobs are on the line.”
The UCBC passed a unanimous motion to alert communities across BC to the threat posed to post secondary education by this ministry of advanced education initiative.
For more information view the Service Delivery Project Briefing.
