CUPE wins at CSSS LaSalle Vieux-Lachine

Montreal, Thursday November 24, 2005 – Asked for a second time to select, by secret ballot, a bargaining agent the category 2 unionized staff of the CSSS LaSalle Vieux-Lachine chose CUPE to represent them. Employees of the paratechnical, ancillary services and trades category cast 432 ballots for CUPE, compared with 374 for the Syndicat des employées et employés de services (SQEES-298).

A previous drive held last spring ended up in a tie vote, forcing another ballot.

In the field, CUPE activists will now be able to continue their fight against the transformation of the Lachine Hospital into a treatment center for light cases. They will also be preparing for the next local bargaining with the employer.

With the mergers in the health and social services facilities, Bill 30 imposes union representation votes and forces workers to choose the central labour body that will now represent them. Such votes will be staggered until March 2006.

Bill 30 (An Act respecting bargaining units in the social affairs sector and amending the Act respecting the process of negotiation of the collective agreements in the public and parapublic sectors) is one of the guillotine laws passed at the end of 2003 by the Charest government. In every facility, the staff was regrouped in four categories of employees: 1) nursing and cardio-respiratory care (e.g.: nurses, practical nurses, respiratory therapists); 2) paratechnical staff, auxiliary services and trades (e.g.: attendants, general maintenance employees, nursing home caregivers); 3) clerical staff, technicians and administration professionals (administrative support staff); and 4) health care and social services technicians et professionals (e.g.: educators, hygienists, psychologists, speech therapists, etc.)

CUPE represents 20,000 members in the health and social services sector in Quebec, about half the FTQ members of this sector. CUPE is also present in 10 other sectors, including municipalities, urban transit, airlines, Quebec Crown corporations and public agencies, hydroelectricity and communications. With almost 100,000 members in Quebec, CUPE is the largest FTQ-affiliated union.

SOURCE : SYNDICAT CANADIEN DE LA FONCTION PUBLIQUE (FTQ)

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