CUPE workers pull out of talks at Camosun

November 6, 2012

VICTORIA – Contract talks have broken down between CUPE support workers at Camosun College and the provincial government. The union will take a strike vote on Saturday Nov. 10. The last contract at Camosun expired in 2010.

CUPE Local 2081 represents more than 600 maintenance, grounds, custodial, front line, clerical, secretarial, bookstore, library, instructional assistants, admin support, cafeteria, trades, sports and recreation staff at the college.

The union bargaining team says the employer is not the problem – the BC Liberals are. The union has met with the college more than a dozen times over the past two years but has made virtually no progress towards a settlement. They say the college’s hands have been tied by the government’s Public Sector Employers’ Council control over collective bargaining and the only option left is job action. If the strike mandate is passed by the union membership on Saturday, CUPE 2081 can serve 72-hour strike notice at the BC Labour Relations Board and then start legal job action.