We appreciate the conscientiousness and care for Vancouver that the public has shown in the past week by cleaning up their own garbage and keeping our beaches and parks clean. As garbage workers ourselves, we appreciate this kind of effort year-round and believe it’s an important shift in the way we live and care for our planet. “Less waste, more recycling” is a motto we believe in and practice.
And we also strive to do the same in our lives. For instance, at the Celebration of Light many of our striking members brought their families to see the show and were also careful to pick up after themselves and leave our beautiful beaches clean and safe.
Furthermore, we applaud the work of Illuminares Festival organizers for cleaning up the litter at Trout Lake Park and for pulling off that great family and community celebration, while respecting our picket lines.
What we do take issue with, however, is private sector contractors doing the work of our bargaining unit which in certain cases can be a violation of the BC Labour Code’s prohibition on the use of “replacement workers.” This concept was developed to keep strikes from dragging on.
Please see: BC Labour Code - Section 68
The same provision of the code states that during a strike, non-striking employees cannot do strike work if they are normally employed at another place of operation of the employer. This is the issue before the Labour Relations Board tomorrow at 9:30 a.m.
Please continue to work with us to shorten this dispute and make Vancouver work again. Urge Mayor Sullivan and Council to instruct their bargaining committee to return to the table and negotiate a fair deal for your civic workers.
www.fairnessforcivicworkers.ca
