BURNABY, BC- Tonight, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) BC president Barry O’Neill confirmed that members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley will be off the job on Friday, October 21st if there is no resolution to the teachers’ dispute.
O’Neill made the announcement following a meeting of CUPE BC’s provincial executive and local presidents in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley. “Friday’s protest will go ahead. The message from CUPE is clear. We feel very strongly that those who have been out since October 7 - our 25,000 CUPE school support workers and the teachers - deserve this show of support from other CUPE members and friends,” said O’Neill.
Rallies, hosted by CUPE BC president Barry O’Neill, will be held at the PNE Coliseum in Vancouver and at Stetson Bowl in the Cloverdale Fairgrounds. CUPE national president Paul Moist, BCTF president Jinny Sims and Hospital Employees’ Union secretary-business manager Judy Darcy will join O’Neill at the rallies. The Vancouver PNE rally is from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and the Surrey Stetson Bowl rally is from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
O’Neill also said that during Friday’s protest, necessary services will be maintained, and CUPE transit workers will remain on the job so that transit services will not be disrupted.
CUPE has 70,000 members in B.C. There are approximately 40,000 CUPE members in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley.
For more information:
Roseanne Moran
CUPE communications representative
(778) 835-7537
Louise Leclair
CUPE communications representative
(778) 228-2099