NELSON While the City of Nelson refused to negotiate on Monday, despite the presence of BCs well-know negotiator Vince Ready, Nelson resident and local athlete Alan Faraguna was rushed to hospital after being injured by a bad bounce on Nelsons Waterfront Ball Diamond. City workers have been barred from maintaining the ball-park by the lockout, which is now in its third week.
I pay big fees to play on that field and nothing is being done to it, except for big rows of cut grass when they finally cut it, said Alan Faraguna, who incurred a large cut over his eye requiring eight stitches and a very serious black and blue swollen eye. Its just a matter of time before someone gets hit in the head and killed. The field is in brutal shape!
Faraguna was rushed to the hospital after being seriously hit in the face by a ball that bounced badly due to the lack of maintenance of the parks field. Hes an all around good athlete that has played softball for more than 25 years and attributes his injury to the unfair playing field.
City workers, who normally maintain the fields, expressed their sympathy with Faraguna after he visited the CUPE lockout headquarters on Vernon Street sporting his injuries.
Faraguna was so badly injured that he was unable to remove his contact lens from his damaged eye.
It hurts us to see Nelson residents being personally impacted by the citys lockout, says Bev Lapointe, CUPE 339 President. When will the city understand that an injury to one is an injury to all?
CUPE Local 339 represents 74 city workers who, prior to the lockout, provided quality public services such as waste and garbage collection, transit, snow removal, road repair and maintenance, engineering, bylaw enforcement, water and sewage treatment, parks, recreation and arena maintenance, and cemetery and city finances.
For more information, please visit http://lockoutnelson.blogspot.com
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Contact:
Bev Lapointe, CUPE Local 339 President, (250) 354-7975;
Diane Kalen, CUPE Communications, (778) 229-0258.