Black Press editorial challenges municipal politicians
An editorial appeared in the local weeklies of Black Press on February 20. Titled Lock out missing voice of local leadership, the editorial challenges politicians to take responsibility for resolving the labour dispute. Here is part of the editorial, with our italics added:
The essence of the disagreement has to do with the interpretation of one line in the 1992 contract between library workers and their employer. That line states that wages paid for library jobs will be based on comparisons to equivalent positions at the City of Victoria.
The union representing workers, CUPE Local 410, has done a good job of highlighting the inequity between wages paid for library staff and those paid municipal workers.
The group arguing for the employer says the union’s comparisons aren’t realistic. Making that claim on the board’s behalf is the Greater Victoria Labour Relations Association. It’s reason for being is to put some distance between municipalities and their employees when it comes to labour negotiations. Same (but different) when it comes to the library system.
Part of the GVRLA’s argument is that municipalities are not the employers of library workers. We beg to differ.
The library board consists of people from the community as well as representatives from municipalities that use the library’s services.
Without taking anything away from citizens on the board, it’s the municipalities that foot the bill. At some point their elected representatives are the ones who are directly accountable to taxpayers.
Up until now, the board has been notably quiet about its position on the disagreement with the library workers’ union.
We really haven’t heard much from the board or the GVRLA. In fact, the only person who has spoken on behalf of the board has been its chair, Christopher Graham.
We think it’s time for that to change.
It’s time for individual municipalities to speak up about what’s going on. The best way to do that is for the de facto spokesperson of each municipality – the mayor – to add some clarity to what’s going on. It’s not enough for the GVRLA to make vague threats about job security and branch viability if wages rise.
We think taxpayers deserve to know exactly how much the union’s demands will cost.
We’d like to see those numbers made public and became part of what should be a public debate. Doing so would infuse discussion with the political will that seems to be lacking from the current negotiations.
For the full editorial of February 20 and a complete record of other media coverage on the dispute since 2007, see our link to Media coverage - links.
Filed under: Media Coverage by carol