BC Worker

One-day strike of CUPE Local 379 members, K-12 support staff for the Burnaby School Board, June 26, 2013. (CUPE BC)

Stand with Education Workers in Defence
of Their Rights!

The Clark Liberal government is pushing education workers to the wall with demands for concessions and a wage offer below price inflation. This continues the government's attacks on the working class and wrecking of public education. It must not pass!

The 27,000 education workers organized into the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) are justly opposing concessions and demanding a yearly wage increase that does not fall behind price inflation. They are prepared to go on strike if the government does not back down from its anti-worker position.

BC Worker calls on everyone in BC to stand with the CUPE education workers and their just demands. An attack on education workers is an attack on the public education system and the learning conditions of students as well as an attack on public authority in favour of its privatization. It is time to put an end to the neo-liberal anti-social offensive! Unite with education workers in defence of their rights! They deserve and should receive wages and benefits commensurate with the important work they perform providing safe and stable learning conditions for the youth, which adds value to the education system and its students.

Oppose the Liberal Government's
Anti-Social Austerity Agenda!

Support for the just demands of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) education workers means supporting the K-12 public education system. It requires demanding the government increase investments in public education and stop starving local school boards of the necessary funds to maintain and improve the provincial educational system. It means forcing the government to increase investments in social programs and public services and stop paying the rich and wrecking society on which everyone depends.

The people of BC must act in a manner which does not permit the government to implement its retrogressive practice of signing collective agreements in the public sectors and then refusing to invest in those sectors, leaving them to scramble to find funds through layoffs, reductions in hours and cuts to programs. This is what wrecking society is all about and it must be stopped.

Members of CUPE Local 716, representing support staff at the Richmond School Board, oppose concessions and wage cuts, and fight for the just demands of education workers across BC, June 26, 2013. (CUPE BC)

The potential disruption of the K-12 education system is a direct result of Premier Christy Clark's dogmatic assertion that her government will provide no increase in funding. Her preoccupation is solely with facilitating massive public expenditures in infrastructure. These are to be handed over mostly free of charge to the monopolies like Chevron, Shell and others to extract, transport through pipelines, condense and export natural gas, as well as provide cheap hydro electricity for major new resource sites controlled by the global monopolies.

BC Worker calls on everyone to stand with CUPE education workers, teachers and other public sector employees who are engaging their memberships and the public in a broad discussion on how to defend the rights of all in the face of the neo-liberal offensive. The time is now to block Clark's retrogressive program to pay the rich and disinvest in social programs and public services. The time is now for all to stand as one demanding the BC government must respect and guarantee the rights of all. The demands of CUPE education workers and other public sector workers are entirely just. No worker in the public or private sector should be subjected to concessions and to suffer a loss in wages to inflation.

The Liberal anti-social anti-worker austerity agenda to wreck society must be beaten!

Stop Paying the Rich! Increase Investments in Social Programs!
Our Security Lies in the Fight to Defend the Rights of All!

Continuing Crisis in K-12 Education Caused by Government's "Budgetary Restraint" Policy

On September 10, the Canadian Union of Public Employees' (CUPE) K-12 Presidents' Council Bargaining Sub-committee issued a statement on "disappointing" talks with the employer held September 4 to 8. CUPE represents more than 27,000 education assistants, clerical staff, trades, Aboriginal workers, youth and family workers, custodians and bus drivers in BC.

The statement says, "The actual compensation 'increase' in the government's offer is: zero in the first year, 2% in the second, and 2% on the last day of the contract. The offer is less than other public-sector unions have negotiated in recent months, and despite the government's spin, the wage offer is only a 4% increase on paper. It is likely to end up as less than zero for CUPE members when factoring in concessions. The offer also proposes to eliminate accrued sick leave in all local agreements through a 3-tiered contract structure [reduce paid sick time by two thirds and cut sick day pay by 15 percent for the newest employees -- BCW Ed. Note]. Despite the BC Liberal government's commitment to a 'Families First Agenda,' the government's latest proposal would put students at risk of a reduced quality of service in public schools."

The CUPE statement concludes, "Virtually all of the CUPE locals representing education workers are in a strike position. CUPE locals will serve at least a 72-hour strike notice before withdrawing labour and establishing picket lines."

In a separate statement from CUPE on September 10, the union says, "Talks with the BC Public Schools Employers' Association will continue on September 16, but a lack of progress on a reasonable wage increase for education workers in BC's K-12 system threatens to shut down the public school system."

CUPE spokesperson Bill Pegler is quoted saying, "We don't have endless patience. Our members have been without a wage adjustment for four years. We are seeking an extremely modest raise with no concessions, but the government won't even offer that.... By refusing to offer education workers what has been offered to other public sector units, the government is inviting a province-wide strike that will shut down the whole public school system.... The government's negotiating position is irresponsible to parents and insensitive to the system's lowest paid workers."

To give weight to their case, the union commissioned a poll conducted by Ipsos. The results show that 81 per cent of British Columbians polled believe that education support worker wages should keep up with inflation. Some 62 per cent say education workers are underpaid, and 66 per cent believe that BC's schools need more government funding.

Pegler emphasized, "CUPE education workers keep BC schools clean, safe, and inclusive. Our bargaining demand for a 2 per cent wage increase for each of two years is in-step with the public's expectations of compensation."

This is a key argument. CUPE education workers, similar to teachers, create value for the society. They are essential in training the new generation of workers and higher education students. Yet the employers, in particular the largest companies who hire and use the thousands of graduates at all levels, make no specific contribution to social investment to realize the value produced by teachers and school workers, which is found in the educated youth and transferred to the work they perform. This value from education generates enormous additional profit for employers, of which a portion must be poured back into the educational system to sustain and develop it and society.

Government Must Stop Paying the Rich and
Increase Funding for Social Programs

In contrast to the current below-inflation government offer to public education workers, recent public sector settlements have included two per cent yearly wage increases. However, the most important caveat in those agreements is that the two per cent wage increase for the public service and social program workers has not been accompanied with increased government investment. This lack of investment maintains Liberal Premier Christy Clark's anti-social austerity agenda with its "budget restraint" dictate.

The government says the two per cent salary increase contained in public sector collective agreements must come out of the existing budgets of the province, NGOs and other programs. This means further layoffs, reductions of services, wrecking and a general impoverishment of what the government is supposed to provide from the public treasury for the public need and good.

By persisting in their pay-the-rich neo-liberal "balanced budget" scheme whereby taxes and other charges to the corporate giants are minimized and payouts to them are maximized, the Clark government has simply made a mockery of "collective bargaining." Instead of reinstituting the taxes the Liberal government cut for the top income earners in BC and corporations, they are dictating every branch of government must limp along on budgets dictated by Clark and her cabinet that do not meet the needs of the new collective agreements.

Strike Votes and Rallies to Defend the Rights of Contracted Health Care Support Workers

Rally at Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, May 29, 2013, to defend the rights of hospital support workers. (HEU)

Contracts for Hospital Employees Union (HEU) workers employed by the international labour-trafficking monopolies Aramark, Sodexo, Compass-Marquise and Acciona expired during 2012.

Negotiations for new contracts between the HEU and Aramark and Sodexo have broken off. Both companies have refused to negotiate wage and benefit improvements acceptable to the workers. As required by the union constitution, the HEU's Provincial Executive has approved the holding of strike votes by Aramark and Sodexo workers, which are being conducted from September 16 to 27. For voting dates, times and locations click here.

According to a ruling last April by mediator Vince Ready, a new collective agreement between the HEU and Acciona will be an average of the industry standard for wages, health and welfare benefits, and other monetary improvements, so no negotiations are taking place with Acciona.

The over 4,400 workers involved are covered by 13 collective agreements. They work at 80 worksites for four different Health Authorities on the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. During the course of several months of negotiations, the HEU workers have organized rallies to keep all their members informed of what the multinationals are offering in the talks and how they are proceeding. The rallies are also used to inform all other hospital workers who work for the Health Authorities and workers in the communities of their demands and struggle.

The monopolies, acting as parasitic middlemen within the capitalist labour market, charge the health care system for supplying workers to institutions. The monopolies use a portion of the money they receive from the Health Authorities to pay the wages of workers they supply, and keep the rest. Officially, the labour-traffickers employ the health care workers and not the health care institutions.

Nanaimo Rally of Housekeeping Workers

In Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, housekeeping workers at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital are employed by the labour-trafficking monopoly Compass. The workers are members of the Hospital Employees Union (HEU) and are engaged in talks to replace their collective agreement, which expired last year.

On September 6, housekeeping staff along with other workers at the hospital and supporters from the community held a rally outside the main entrance to the hospital. They raised their demands for "a fair contract and decent wages" for health care workers and for "safer cleaner hospitals" for patients. The workers distributed a flyer to other workers and visitors to inform them of their working arrangement with Compass and the need for change. The leaflet states, "At Nanaimo Regional General Hospital the last increase was five cents an hour on September 1, 2012, bringing wages up to $14.75/hr." In bargaining, Compass is currently offering to increase the wage by only 10 cents an hour.

The flyer lists the declared global profits of the four labour-trafficking monopolies: $1.7 billion for Compass-Marquise, $1.3 billion for Sodexo and $82 million for Aramark in 2012, and $272 million for Acciona in 2011.

Since food services and housekeeping were handed over to the international parasites, the contracted workers have fought to improve their claim on the value they create within the health care system. They have also insisted on bettering their working conditions. The working conditions for food service and housekeeping workers directly affect the conditions faced by patients and must be a concern for all.

The HEU members are acutely aware of the importance of their work. Nanaimo Regional Hospital is one of the hospitals in which a catastrophic C. difficile outbreak occurred. The contracted housekeeping workers are on the front lines when it comes to saving lives through preventing the spread of infection. They are fighting for their dignity and to be able to do their jobs properly with modern effective tools and training and stability of employment, which requires wages and benefits commensurate with the work they do at a Canadian standard.

Stand with Education Workers in Defence of Their Rights!