WINNIPEG – City solid waste collectors are going to be on their routes tomorrow, but they will be spreading information, not collecting garbage.
CUPE 500 members are launching their campaign tomorrow, to inform the public about what is being considered by City Hall, and to encourage the public to support the garbage collectors.
Saturday, June 18, 20059:00 am to 1:00 pm For Rouge Leisure Centre – 625 Osborne Street Starting - Returning Point
“We have been quiet up to now,” says CUPE 500 president Mike Davidson. “We have been trying to work with city officials and some councillors to resolve this issue. Now we want to tell the public what’s going on.”
City officials are trying to privatize solid waste collection in the city, and if councillors go ahead and contract out garbage collection, the union says service quality will drop and costs could rise.
“When we are out on our routes, people will come up to us and say thanks. Even if we aren’t helping them bring their trash to the street or load extra stuff, they just come up and tell us how much they appreciate us,” said Todd Martin, shop steward and solid waste worker in the water and waste department of the City of Winnipeg.
“Now we are asking people to call their councillors and tell them what they think!”
Union members will be dropping leaflets, door-to-door, in the south end of the city on the weekend.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees is Canada’s largest union representing more than a half-million women and men. In Manitoba, CUPE represents 24,000 members working in health care facilities, school divisions, municipal services, social services, child care centres, public utilities, libraries and family emergency services. About 8,000 of these members work in municipalities across Manitoba.
For more information, contact:
Greg Mandzuk, CUPE National Representative, 942-0343, ext.297
Dennis Lewycky, CUPE Communications, 942-0343, ext. 207 / cell. 223-6805
More background material available at: http://www.cupe.mb.ca/news/solidwaste4.htm