Vote YES for a strong strike mandate
VANCOUVER – The provincial government has given community social services workers another strong motivation to attend strike vote meetings being held around BC.
We all know that inflation is driving up the cost of living. The price of a litre of gas has climbed by 43 per cent since our last pay raise. Bread is up more than 11 per cent and milk more than 10 per cent.
These are not the only double digit increases though.
Last week we heard that senior executives at Community Living British Columbia are receiving huge bonuses. Frontline workers are expressing outrage that these bonuses of 10% or more are being handed to the senior managers responsible for mismanaging community living services and who have created the current crisis.
“The BC government has been telling workers that there is no room in the provincial budget for wage and benefit increases in the Community Social Services sector, but that’s obviously not true,” said CUPE BC President Barry O’Neill. “The government comes to the table saying that we would have to find savings in our collective agreement to pay for any raise workers received, but paying bonuses or raises to CLBC executives of CLBC shows that this government does have the money, it just needs to get its priorities straight.”
“The only way we’re going to get this government to fix the system and pay frontline workers fairly is by taking a stand and voting ‘yes’.”
We need to send a strong message that this double standard has to stop. Please take the time to attend a strike vote meeting and Vote Yes to give your bargaining committee the strong mandate it needs.
Meetings are being held this week on Vancouver Island, Powell River, Kamloops, Salmon Arm, Revelstoke and northern BC. Click here Additional meetings are being held next week.
Please ensure that your local union has your most recent contact information, inclusive of email addresses and phone numbers. For up to date information and resources, continue to check www.cupe.bc.ca, www.cssfairdeal.ca and your local’s website.
