London, Ont. – City of London management is jeopardizing public services by demanding that CUPE Local 101 drop three grievances or go out on strike, warns the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), representing over 750 municipal ‘inside’ workers.
“The employer is holding public services that our members provide to the residents of London as bargaining chips,” said Cindy Cossar-Jones, president of CUPE 101. “In the last stages of bargaining, the employer demanded that we drop grievances we have filed against the city for violations of our collective agreement. We’ve even had two days of hearings on one of the grievances, which normally are dealt with in a separate process outside of bargaining, and we suspect the employer knows they will not win this grievance. Essentially they are telling us, you either drop these grievances or you go on strike.”
“We deliver public services every day and know how important our work is to London residents,” said Cossar-Jones. “That’s why we extended the strike deadline to ensure the public is not affected by management’s latest tactic. The strike deadline extension will allow our members to review the current situation and discuss next steps.”
The previous strike deadline of July 5 has been extended for a week to 12:01 am, July 12. No further talks are scheduled. The workers’ last contract expired on December 31, 2007.
“Council and management have been telling the public that money is the main issue while behind closed doors they are pushing their own agenda by forcing us to drop grievances or go out on strike,” said Cossar-Jones. “We are urging the public to contact the Mayor and council to urge them to bargain fairly, and stop undermining the bargaining process and jeopardizing public services.”
CUPE 101 represents ‘inside’ workers at the City of London. A strike or lockout would affect municipal services, including finance and administration, building and property standard inspections, by-law enforcement, water and waste water treatment, tourism, traffic management, roads construction management, recreation programs registration, social services, provincial offences services, streets and traffic lights management, IT services and more.
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For further information, please contact:
| Cindy Cossar-Jones | Fred Blake | James Chai |
| President CUPE 101 | CUPE National Rep. | 416-292-3999 |
| 519-852-8010 | 519-868-4006 | CUPE Communications |