BURNABY – The BC Labour Relations Board has rejected an SFU bid to overturn a ruling that it is bargaining in bad faith with its 1,000 CUPE Local 3338 employees. The decision was announced on Monday.
The original unfair labour practices judgment was handed down by the LRB back in January. The decision was based on SFU’s insistence on tying changes to the multi-party SFU pension plan to collective bargaining with CUPE.
SFU has been fighting the ruling since January and no other progress has been made in stalled contract talks. Every other public community college and university in the province has settled new collective agreements with their CUPE workers. All the university settlements were reached last year with the exception of SFU, whose CUPE workers have now been without a contract for over three years!
“We thought this was a very clear signal to senior administration at SFU when the ruling was first handed down for them to get back to the table and bargain in good faith for a fair and reasonable settlement,” says CUPE Local 3338 business agent John Bannister. “Now that their appeal has failed, we hope they stop stalling and engage us in meaningful negotiations.”
“This decision vindicates our position that SFU is engaged in unfair labour practices, but where we really want to be is not at the LRB, but signing a new and already budgeted-for contract that will let us focus on the really pressing outstanding issues like the problems SFU is having administering its pension plan,” says Bannister.
