White Rock city workers issue 72-strike notice

WHITE ROCK — For the first time ever, the City of White Rock will experience job action after the employees' union issued 72-strike notice Tuesday morning.

Now, with job action set to begin Friday, members of CUPE 402-01 are hoping the city will see they are serious about their bargaining issues.

"We didn’t have a choice, we met with the city Friday, Saturday and Sunday and came away very disappointed," said CUPE 402-01 President Mike Guraliuk. "It’s obvious the employer has no concerns for our issues so we felt no other choice than to serve them notice."

According to Guraliuk, the first part of the job action will be to shut down city hall.

"So all services to do with city hall, including pay parking, taxes, ticketing, bylaw enforcement, everything will be affected," he said.

As of now, Friday is the only day set for job action, but Guraliuk said more were on the horizon.

"After city hall we’re looking at operations, that would be garbage, recycling, building maintenance, road works, but we haven’t decided which day that will be," he said. "It will be next week though."

Once the union has issued an initial 72-hour strike notice, it does not have to do so for any subsequent days of job action.

At issue for the union are defined work hours for all employees, fair treatment for casual and part-time employees and more safeguards for those who become seriously ill.

CUPE 402-01 represents more than 100 workers in the city, including operations workers, arena workers and clerks through various municipal buildings

"Our interest is getting the city back to the end of the table," explained Guraliuk. "We don’t want to strike but our hand has been forced so we figured rotating strikes will put the pressure on the city to get back to the table and get a deal done."

Pickets will be set up at city hall Friday morning and will continue throughout the day.

Shortly after the union's announcement, the city came out with a release of its own highlighting the city's offer to the union.

In the release, the city says its offers have been in line with other municipalities dealing with CUPE locals and that the city has always been and remains committed to bargaining in good faith.

"The City of White Rock is proposing a fair and balanced offer to CUPE 402-01. The offer is sustainable and contains what the City believes is required to resolve outstanding issues presented at the table. Given its size, the City must meet the demand for public services within their available funding and ensure service delivery is cost effective and efficient," reads the release.

Part of the city's offer includes a 6.75 per cent wage increase from 2012 to 2015.

"The city remains hopeful that a settlement can be reached that meets the needs of both parties."

In February, the city’s union workers voted 94 per cent in favour of striking after being without an agreement since the end of 2011. Both sides have been negotiating for the past year, to no avail.