Letter to Members on Staff Job Action #2

Dear Members,

As your president and a nurse who has long upheld trade union principles, I took time to reflect on the meaning of Labour Day on this past last long weekend of summer. Labour Day began when workers mobilized to address very poor working conditions, low wages, and long work days. I am proud to be a union leader and to work to ensure that BCNU members have excellent and fair collective agreements.

<>So, as you can imagine, it has not been easy to make decisions that have resulted in staff members of BCNU going on strike. But these decisions were made by the leadership of the BCNU because we have been elected to protect how member's dues are spent. I am pleased that an agreement has been reached with one of our staff unions, Unifor but COPE/MoveUp remains on strike. But we are back at the bargaining table this weekend.

We will be discussing comparability. Staff working for unions nearly always enjoy superior wages and benefits to those in similar positions outside of the labour movement. Sometimes, as with professional staff, this is needed to attract and retain people. Other times, it happens because as a union, we want to provide more. But there comes a time when we have to look at issues that are creating excessive expense to BCNU. When preparing for staff bargaining, we examine the issues and the data carefully. We compare what our staff receive with other union staff in comparable positions. And I can tell you that our COPE/MoveUp staff receive more - opposite to why Labour Day started, they have good working conditions, superior wages and a 35 hour work week.

We have been accused of "gutting" benefits. Aside from offering an increase in eyecare, we proposed what was necessary to address the excessive paid time Move/Up spends away from work. The figures are startling and far exceed the figure Move/Up provided as the national absenteeism average of 5.4%. Often, on any given work day we have over 20% of our staff absent. What was first negotiated to ensure that Move/Up staff could attend urgent medical appointments that couldn't be scheduled outside of work hours or when true family emergencies occurred has evolved into paid time off for massage therapy, naturopathy, or routine dental appointments. BCNU proposed capping time off based on a review of comparable staff union agreements and industry standards.

Finally, despite the strike, you have a team of dedicated stewards, Regional and Provincial Executive members, excluded staff and now a group of BCNU professional staff who are back working providing service to you.

Warm Regards,

Gayle Duteil
BCNU President