We have an election coming up that will take place at the April General meeting. This meeting in particular is important to attend as it is your opportunity to have a say and vote for who represents you in your union!

CUPE 387 is currently accepting advance nominations online for the election.
The following positions are available at this time:

1. Vice President – 3 year term commencing 2025
2. Recording Secretary – 3 year term commencing 2025
3. Executive Director (2 positions available) – 2 year term commencing 2025
4. Trustee – 3 year term commencing 2025

Interested in Getting Involved?

If you’ve been thinking about getting more involved with CUPE 387, becoming part of the Union executive may be the opportunity for you! The Union executive conducts union business, represents the Union in collective bargaining, and works for the best interests of its members.
Executives meet once a month.

Union Trustees conduct an audit of the Union annually.
The audit takes one day to complete.

See more detailed information in our Current Bylaws.

If you have questions about any of the positions, please contact any current Executive, or the Union office at office@cupe387.ca.

If you are interested in running or nominating someone, the nomination committee is accepting advance nominations online until 12:00pm Friday, April 18, 2025. Nominations will also be accepted from the floor at the time of the election. All members of CUPE 387 (auxiliaries, part time, temporary, full time) are eligible.

To nominate a member for one of the available positions, please CLICK HERE TO FILL OUT THE NOMINATION FORM.

2025 will be an important year for our Local. The joint Union/Employer committees on Hours of Work, Auxiliary Utilization, Sick Leave, and Recruitment and Retention have submitted recommendations to the Union and the Employer’s Senior Management team. We look forward to working with the Employer to implement all feasible recommendations as soon as possible and are eager to tackle the others through the collective bargaining process. 

With collective bargaining on the horizon, please ensure the Union has your personal email address on file to keep you in the loop with developments as they come. We encourage all members to stay informed and participate in our upcoming meetings and bargaining survey. Your feedback is crucial in helping us tailor our priorities and strategies to meet the evolving needs of our membership. With continued cost-of-living pressures putting strain on you and your families, this round of bargaining is crucial to achieving fair wages, continued progress on benefit improvements, and ensuring our members are fairly recognized for the important public services we provide.

We are happy to announce that after last week’s election, we are now back up to a full Executive. Thank you to everyone who participated, and we look forward to moving ahead with a full team.

• President (term ending 2026) – Michelle Edwardsen (Parks), moved from Recording Secretary
• Vice-President (term ending 2025) – Jay DeCoursey (Engineering Operations), moved from Executive Director
• Recording Secretary (term ending 2025) – Jessica Adam (Recreation), moved from Executive Director
• Executive Director (term ending 2026) – Brian Tompkins (Parks)
• Executive Director (term ending 2025) – Sage Deluce (Parks)

As noted in the October General meeting, we will be holding a by-election for the positions of President and Vice-President at the November 26, 2024 General Meeting. Advance nominations are now open for these positions. Nominations from the floor will be accepted at the time of the by-election. All members of CUPE 387 (auxiliaries, part time, temporary, full time) are eligible.

Job Descriptions:

• President (term ending Spring 2026)
• Vice-President (term ending Spring 2025)

For more information, read the full copy of our bylaws, or contact the office.  Should a current executive member win the election, their position will be up for immediate election with nominations from the floor at the General Meeting.

Nominate now

As announced at the October General Meeting, there will be a motion to approve the CUPE 387 Budget for 2025 at the next General Meeting on November 26, 2024.

We are happy to announce that Zaria Alibhai (City Hall, Community Services) was elected to the position of Executive Director at the by-election held during last night’s General Meeting. Zaria brings a wealth of experience facilitating complex issues and a drive to strengthen the voice of the union in the city.

In late August of 2024, CUPE Local 387 settled its Grievance with the Employer regarding the Employer’s failure to provide the minimum illness or injury leave days prescribed by the BC Employment Standards Act. You will find a copy of that settlement agreement here.

As a result of this settlement, the Union and the Employer consider the grievance resolved, and the following changes are coming to short-term sick leave at the City, Library and Police Board:

• Starting January 1st, 2025, the Employer will pay all employees for the first five (5) sick days, in accordance with the Employment Standards Act. This will no longer be funded by premiums previously paid by bargaining unit employees to the self-funded sick plan. This should result in a reduction of premiums paid by members.
• The Union’s Short-Term Sick Leave Plan will continue to cover short-term sick leaves from the sixth (6th) day of sick leave through day 10.

In addition to these changes, the Employer will pay the Union’s Short-Term Sick Plan 70% of regular wages for all regular and temporary full- and part-time employees who received up to five (5) sick days per year from April 1, 2022, up to December 31, 2024. The Union’s Short-Term Sick Plan will be responsible for managing the distribution of these funds once they are received from the Employer. Again, this should result in a reduction of premiums paid by members to the Short-Term Sick Plan, therefore saving money for our members.

In addition to the terms of the settlement agreement, it is important to clarify further what your rights are under the section of the Employment Standards Act. Quoting, in part, from a recent arbitrated decision, ‘Auxiliary Employees are entitled to claim paid sick leave under Section 49.1(1)(a) of the Employment Standards Act where they are called by their Employer with the offer of a work assignment, and they would have accepted the assignment “but for” an illness or injury. This interpretation accords with the express intentions of the Legislature that all workers, including casual employees, are entitled to five days of paid leave for personal illness or injury after 90 consecutive days of employment, and that “[n]obody should be forced to make [the] decision to go to work sick or stay home and lose wages”. Whether an employee would otherwise have worked a particular assignment is a question of fact that may need to be determined on a case-by-case basis.’