(St. John’s) - CUPE NL. President Wayne Lucas says the provincial government could save money and create more decent-paying jobs here at home by bringing maintenance work in house.
Lucas points to provincial school boards as an example, saying, “By using their own qualified journeymen personnel over the last number of years, they’ve been able to do more and more capital works projects in a timely and cost-effective manner.
“The Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation,” says Lucas, “has also been using their own employees for years and have even gone to the extent of sponsoring their employees for employment upgrades to obtain the necessary qualifications to perform the jobs.”
“With the Alberta factor being what it is, a lot of CUPE members across the province are suffering from ‘under-employment’. Their talents need to be expanded and utilized to their full capacity. Unless there is some light at the end of the tunnel, there’s a good chance they’ll become yet another statistic,” says Lucas.
Lucas says, “While CUPE appreciates that school boards and other employers are trying to tackle problems resulting from too many years of under funding and a lack of preventative maintenance, we want to encourage government to return to a level of service that was really swept away during the 1980’s and 90’s.”
For more information, please contact:
Wayne Lucas
President, CUPE NL.
(709) 727-3509 (cell)
John McCracken
CUPE Communications Rep.
(902) 455-4180 (o)