In the last month your bargaining committee has met to bargain with the employers (the City of New Westminster, the New Westminster Public Library, and the Police Board) several times. While we were hopeful to make significant progress during these bargaining sessions, the reality is that little additional progress has been made.
We have been bargaining with the employers and their external lead negotiator from Regional Employers Services (RES 360) since October 31 and they have made little effort to seriously address your key concerns.
We have always had a collaborative working relationship with the employers, and unfortunately the involvement of an external negotiator from RES 360 has put that at risk. We believe the most effective way to negotiate this collective agreement is to work directly with the employers and we have asked that they revise their approach to bargaining.
We remain committed to addressing the key concerns members identified for this round of bargaining including:
- A wage increase that will help address the ongoing affordability crisis in this region and that is in line with neighbouring municipalities.
- Increasing the amount of stable full-time and part-time positions in our workplaces.
- Changes to our current sick leave plan.
We have an additional half day of bargaining scheduled for March 14 and will give another update following that.
The best way to make sure you receive all future bargaining updates is to regularly monitor the CUPE 387 website (cupe387.ca) and also ensure CUPE 387 has your contact information by emailing your personal (non-work) email address to cupeoffice@telus.net.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us by email at cupe387@telus.net
In solidarity,
Your CUPE 387 bargaining committee