A CUPE union representative says he's making a last ditch effort to resolve a contract dispute between the District of Squamish and unionized municipal workers - and it may be the only remaining hope to avoiding a strike.
CUPE union National Servicing Representative Rob Jandric said he was meeting with Squamish Mayor Greg Gardner Thursday (Feb. 12) to make a personal plea for compromise in the stalled collective agreement bargaining affecting approximately 150 unionized employees.
"A strike is not in the best interest for anybody," said Jandric, who took over the Squamish file from negotiator Robin Jones after Jones's promotion. "A community as small as this, everybody has interest in their community. It breaks up, it divides a community up. No one wants to see that."
Jandric said he made an application to speak directly to mayor and council after chief administrative officer Kim Anema refused to support recommendations from BC Labour Relations Board mediator Mark Atkinson, and refused to accept compromises CUPE subsequently offered.
"In my time I've never, ever heard of the employer going back to mayor and council and not recommending the meditator's recommendations. It's ridiculous that we're even in this stage," said Jandric. "The whole point to meeting with the mayor is, it got to a frustrating point for me where it was just talking to a wall. I just want to make sure that they [mayor and council] understand. I want to give everybody the benefit of the doubt."
Anema said he can't speak to the issue since discussions are in-camera. He also said CUPE and the district agreed not to "negotiate in the media."
Gardner repeated this assertion.
"Obviously the District of Squamish has a story to tell as well about our perception of where we're at," said Gardner. "I don't want to jeopardize negotiations with CUPE by being seen as negotiating this through the media, so I will be seeking some clarity from CUPE on that very issue in terms of communications and whether they wish us to start disclosing our negotiations and the rational behind them to the media or not."
The outstanding issue, said Jandric, is benefits. He said the district wants to cap benefits that allow unlimited access to paramedical services such as physiotherapy and massage therapy. He said the district's position could be acceptable if such a demand was being made of all other non-unionized members of the municipality, including staff, firefighters and mayor and council.
"It would be different if all of a sudden everybody was losing this benefit. Firefighters are negotiating right now and capping benefits isn't even on the table from the employer."
He said he has documentation from the district that shows CUPE members are not responsible for the increasing cost of benefits at City Hall.
"When you look at the numbers the numbers don't lie. It's not the CUPE members that have driven up the cost of the massage and the physio, which is the true concern."
Anema declined to provide the financial documentation to The Chief without a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
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