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VANCOUVER  – CUPE 15 is dismayed and disappointed that the City of Vancouver would use informal “coffee chats” in hotel lounges and restaurants to falsely raise the hope of the public and CUPE members and deflect attention from the City’s refusal to return to the bargaining table to resolve the civic strike and restore civic services.

“During a strike, we always try and keep the lines of communication open to encourage the parties to return to bargaining,” says CUPE 15 Chief Negotiator Keith Graham, “but there is nothing newsworthy in them until bargaining resumes.”


As the civic strike enters its eighth week, all three CUPE locals issued a formal invitation to City Manager Judy Rogers and Chief Librarian Paul Whitney today to return to the bargaining table immediately, with or without a mediator.


“Bargaining at a table is the only way a union and employer can resolve a strike,” says Graham.


Today marks the third week that Vancouver’s 800 library workers (CUPE 391) have not received a counter-offer from the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Library Board. They proposed what library workers in Burnaby recently negotiated and ratified. This is the first time Vancouver’s library workers have been on strike in their 77-year history.


Vancouver’s 1,800 outside workers, CUPE 1004, are also not in bargaining with the City of Vancouver.


For more information, please contact:
Keith Graham, Chief Negotiator CUPE 15, 604-785-7266
Paul Faoro, President CUPE 15, 604-202-1829
Alexandra Youngberg, President CUPE 391, 604-908-6095
Mike Jackson, President CUPE 1004, 778-908-8070
Diane Kalen, CUPE Communications, 778-229-0258


www.fairnessforcivicworkers.ca