Predictions Made Easy

City of Vancouver spokesman/slander jockey Jerry Dobrovolny says that the civic workers strike may go into the fall.

This page will take a piece of that action. When the city says the strike "may" be prolonged, what they really mean is that it WILL be prolonged. Despite the fact that Vancouver is surrounded by municipalities who have successfully negotiated contracts with their CUPE staff, Sam Sullivan and the NPA refuse to get serious at the table.

Other cities have found flexibilty by dropping out of the GVRD/Metro Vancouver Labour Relations Bureau, but Vancouver has been left holding the stingy, patrician bag. On the issue of job security, the city claims that CUPE's concerns about contracting out are unfounded. If such is the case, why does the city refuse to negotiate language in the collective agreement to that effect? The NPA is stalling at the table in the hopes that piles of garbage and closed facilities will turn the public against the Union, and perhaps the province may yet step in and risk their precarious standing with the Supreme Court of Canada if the Olympic agenda appears to be imperiled by an extended strike.

Any settlement at this point will be paid for through CUPE members own lost wages, while the NPA will hopefully pay a much higher price at the polls next year.