Hi everyone!
Please find a link to the new 2016 CUPE 402-02 Extended health and dental costs document that came into effect June 1st, 2016.
Thanks!
CUPE 561 concerned about developments at Coquitlam Public Library
CUPE 561 is raising a red flag about recent actions of the Coquitlam Public Library (CPL) Board to implement a restructuring plan that would see a 150 per cent increase in management positions.
“Our library is a valuable community resource,” said CUPE 561 Library Sector Shop Steward Allison Hardman. “Instead of spending more than $600,000 on additional management staff, we’d prefer that funding go towards books and resources for library patrons.”
Coquitlam Public Library has created and is advertising for six new management positions which would create a significantly larger and costlier management structure than other public libraries in the Lower Mainland.
CUPE 561 is concerned that the Library Board declined their request to present at their last board meeting, but will be presenting to City Council today to voice their concerns and ask if City Council (the main funder of CPL) intends to give CPL the extra funding to cover the cost of the new management positions.
“Our members are frontline workers who care a great deal about public libraries, especially CPL,” said Hardman. “Without clarity on where the funding is coming from for this restructuring we remain deeply concerned about the negative impact this could have on services. Concerned library patrons and residents should get in touch with the Library Board or City Council and ask them how they plan to pay for all this.”
CUPE 561 represents approximately 70 library workers who support literacy development; recommend and find materials for patrons; provide administrative support to the Coquitlam Library Board; and maintain and provide a public service that is available and accessible to everyone in the community.
Strengthening Canada’s libraries
Strengthening Canada’s libraries: CUPE a strong presence at the CLA’s annual conference
Jun 6, 2016
CUPE made its presence felt at the annual conference of the Canadian Library Association. Mark Hancock, national president of CUPE, spoke at the conference’s opening session.
“We can work together to fight library closures, like those recently announced in Newfoundland and Labrador,” said Hancock, addressing the conference’s 230 delegates. “We can work together to ensure more meaningful and less precarious employment, and to improve workplace health and safety. We can challenge the privatization of public library assets, and lobby for better public funding of our library systems.”
Hancock also introduced the opening session keynote speaker, Chief Wilton Littlechild. Chief Littlechild, a commissioner with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, gave a passionate speech on the rights of Indigenous peoples.
CUPE sponsored the opening session, and had a booth at the CLA’s trade show and exhibition, held in Ottawa, June 1-3. The booth promoted workers’ rights, raised awareness of issues of health and safety, and promoted CUPE’s literacy initiatives.
After 70 years, the Canadian Library Association will be transitioning into a new structure. It will soon be known as the Federation of Library Associations of Canada.
CUPE represents 22,000 members working in libraries – in school libraries, in university and college libraries, and in municipal and public libraries across the country.
Libraries could soon be closed as Essex County Library management triggers labour talks deadline
ESSEX, ON – After only three days of negotiations and on the first day of conciliation talks, Essex County Public Library management asked the Ontario Ministry of Labour to start the countdown to a legal lockout or strike as early as June 25, warns the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), representing 58 library workers.
“Management pulled the trigger and started the possible shutdown of Essex County libraries at the end of the month,” said Lori Wightman, unit chair for CUPE 2974. “We were there to bargain and reach a fair deal so our members can continue to serve the families and children during the busy summer months. Instead of bargaining – management was more interested in dictating terms, and then they called for a ‘no-board’, stopping all bargaining on day one of conciliation.”
“Our library patrons look forward to the summer programs offered at our libraries,” continued Wightman. “With a looming shutdown of the libraries, these popular programs offered to children, teens, adults and families will be severely affected as the workers could be locked out by management. The library board and management will have to explain to the community why they pulled the trigger to shut down libraries instead of working with workers to reach a fair contract.”
In 2015, over 4,000 library patrons attended 226 different summer programs that were offered at 14 library branches around Essex County. Both parties are scheduled for mediation talks on June 22. The workers’ last contract expired on March 31, 2016.
Ed Martin severance deal more proof that library closures unnecessary
The union representing the Newfoundland and Labrador’s library workers says the latest developments in the Ed Martin severance deal are dramatic proof that closing 54 libraries had no basis in economics. CUPE NL President Wayne Lucas says, “First we learn, that the $1.4 million in severance was more money than the actual savings from the library closures. Then this week we find out from Mr. Martin that the premier himself was directly involved in the deal that saw him leave gracefully, provided government would pay him his severance – even though he wasn’t supposed to get it if he retired voluntarily.”
CUPE Local 2329 President Dawn Lahey says, “I would like the premier, as well as his Education Minister, Dale Kirby, to explain to the communities who will be losing their cherished libraries, as well as the mostly female workforce who will be losing their jobs, how they can now justify these brutal closures.
“Dale Kirby has gone on record as stating that there is not much they can do because the decision to close down 54 libraries was made by the board of directors. As a library worker with 35 years’ experience, I would have to put that right in the Fiction section along with the yarn they are spinning on the Martin severance deal. “The people of Newfoundland and Labrador are simply not buying these falsehoods and misrepresentations any longer. Minister Kirby needs to reverse this decision to close half the province’s libraries,” says Lahey.