VANCOUVER—CUPE 15 and the City of Vancouver have reached a tentative agreement for members employed by the City of Vancouver, Park Board, Ray-Cam and Britannia.
CUPE 15 president Paul Faoro says that after ten months of bargaining the bargaining committee is pleased to have reached a fair, balanced and respectful agreement.
“The agreement reflects both parties taking a serious look at the current economic state of the City of Vancouver and balancing a fair wage increase with fair and required language changes to create stability for the workers and the employer,” says Faoro.
The new agreement includes wage increases of 1.25 percent in the first year, 1.75 percent in the next two years and 2 percent in the final year of the four-year agreement. The agreement also includes significant improvements to the collective agreement in the area of postings and promotions, job security, layoff and recall, grievance procedure and to the job classification system. The parties have also agreed to continue discussion on the scheduling of auxiliary employees.
The new agreement is effective January 1, 2012 and will expire December 31, 2015.
Both the union and the employer must still ratify the agreement. CUPE 15’s ratification vote is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 6 and the bargaining committee is unanimously recommending acceptance of the tentative agreement.
CUPE 15 represents 6,000 workers at 17 employers located in the Greater Vancouver area. Members work in a diversity of jobs which include clerical, technical, administrative, recreational, educational, cultural, residential, parking enforcement and building service positions.
