Alma, Tuesday, June 26, 2001 In the city of Alma, employees and employers are not shilly-shallying around. The proof is that in about three months, representatives of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE-QFL) and municipal employees have completed all the phases for integrating staff and unifying collective agreements for the two merged cities, Delisle and Alma.
On March 12, hardly 3 weeks after the merger decree came into force, employees from the municipality of Delisle (who had been represented by the CSD until then), decided all together to join CUPE, which already represented the majority of workers in Alma, and asked the latter to represent them in the regrouping process imposed by the government. The operation was carried out briskly, and since June 5, there is a unified collective agreement that governs all outside and inside workers in the new city of Alma.
Management representatives for the city of Alma realized that it was more advantageous to negotiate a unified collective agreement quickly than to apply the lengthy process outlined in Bill 124, commented Steven Laforest, the union representative for CUPE, who added that, the Alma case shows clearly that we can unify collective agreements and integrate staff equitably without third-party intervention.
CUPE represents approximately 70% of all municipal employees in Qub0065c. With nearly 100,000 members in 11 sectors, CUPE is also the largest affiliate of the QFL.
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SOURCE: CANADIAN UNION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES (QFL)
Information:
Steven Laforest (418) 699-0166
Robert Bellerose (514) 384-9681, Ext. 239
opeiu 491