City contract talks in limbo

Contract negotiations took an “awkward” turn at the city this week, when outside workers belonging to CUPE Local 4705 voted to reject a three-year contract.

The 500 or so outside workers – including staff working on road repairs, arena and parks workers, water and waste water staff – voted 64 per cent to reject the deal.

But the 970 inside workers, also represented by Local 4705, voted to accept the contract, which was recommended unanimously by the union’s bargaining committee.

Calls to Local 4705 President Rick Leroux weren’t returned, and staff at the office said he was in negotiations all day. Kevin Fowke, city’s director of human resources, said the city has an agreement with CUPE not to discuss the terms of the tentative deal.

“You’re best to talk to (CUPE) about that,” Fowke said, when asked what workers didn’t like about the contract. “We’ve given CUPE our word that we wouldn’t be discussing the contents of the deal in the media.”

Fowke said the city is still trying to ascertain what issues workers had with the contract to see if they can find a way to move forward.

“We’ve got a bit of a situation to work through with them and we’ll do that through more discussions,” he said.

When asked if the inside workers would be entitled to any improvements the outside workers may be able to negotiate, Fowke said it’s too early to speculate on what’s going to happen.

“We’re going to have to get into those discussions, but at this point, I don’t even know what the issues are,” he said. “So I can’t really speculate on whether it would change anybody else’s deal.

“The inside unit has accepted the tentative agreement, so they have a new collective agreement for three years. I don’t imagine there will be any changes to that agreement. That obviously puts some pressure on the outside unit’s bargaining situation. It becomes very awkward for us.”

He said outside and inside workers have negotiated parallel contracts since amalgamation at the turn of the century. Their hourly pay ranges from $13.71 for student workers to $31.04 for tradespeople. The ratification vote was held all day Tuesday, with voting continuing as late as 10 p.m. to accommodate some shift workers.

Fowke said there are plans to convene a formal meeting with the bargaining unit to try and find out what the key issues are and whether they can be accommodated.

“We have to find out whether there are adjustments that can be made to the deal to make it more palatable,” he said.

While the rejection of the tentative deal is a setback, Fowke said last time, contracts weren’t settled until June 2010, so they are well ahead of schedule. The union still doesn’t have a strike mandate and neither side has sought conciliation from a mediator, both key steps before a strike can happen.

“It was a bit unique to have a collective agreement completed before the deadline, so there’s no need to panic,” Fowke said. “As far as getting the outside workers a deal, we encourage everybody to maintain professionalism and to respect CUPE’s process.

“We don’t want to engage in a debate over the merits of the deal. We’ve had a very respectful process with CUPE and we don’t expect that will change.”