Montra006c, Wednesday, July 4, 2001 With a vote of 415 to 255, the 850 employees across Qub0065c from the firm of SCUR chose to be represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) rather than by the CSN. Fortified by its absolute majority, CUPE has now become the sole union representative at SCUR.
This union allegiance vote was decreed by the Canadian Labour Relations Board earlier on at the beginning of the year. The results of the vote today are from a second round of polling. On the first round in May, CUPE had already received more than 45% of the votes, giving it the lead over the three other unions on the list, the CSN, the CSD, and the RTTQ, an independent union.
Serge Morin, union representative at CUPE, rejoiced at the results. At the beginning of this campaign, CUPE only represented 20% of SCURs employees. It looks like the idea took root of being represented by a large-scale organization with large-scale means, he declared, alluding to the fact that a major segment of SCUR employees left an independent union to join CUPE and the QFL. The case of SCUR has been dragging on for four years, he added. Now that the vote is over, we have to build a united union to negotiate decent working conditions. Thats what employees at SCUR deserve, and theyve been waiting too long for that already.
Before the vote was held, 29 different unions had a share in representing the overall set of employees from the various departments and branches of SCUR. The RTTQ (Regroupement des travailleurs et travailleuses du Qub0065c), the independent union that originally applied to have a single certification unit recognized, was eliminated in the first round of polling when it failed to receive 25% of the votes.
CUPE has nearly 100,000 members in 565 local unions in Qub0065c, and is the largest affiliate of the QFL.
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SOURCE: CANADIAN UNION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES (QFL)
Information : Serge Morin 418-563-0357