Members of CUPE 966 give bargaining committee 90% mandate to take “any action” required to achieve a fair settlement
Staff of Supportive Housing in Peel (SHIP), members of Local 966 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE 966) have overwhelmingly rejected their employer’s final offer.
Instead, members today voted more than 90 per cent in favour of giving their bargaining committee a mandate to take any action necessary to achieve a fair settlement with SHIP, up to and including strike action.
“Our members do not want a labour disruption, and our bargaining committee is prepared to stay at the bargaining table for as long as necessary to achieve a fair collective agreement,” said CUPE 966 President Mary Jo Falle.
“Unfortunately, SHIP’s approach to these negotiations has been to either ignore our members’ issues and proposals, or to deliver ultimatums and tell us to ‘take it or leave it’,” she added.
Local 966’s bargaining committee will meet SHIP management in the coming days with the assistance of a Provincial Conciliation Officer in an effort to hammer out a collective agreement.
Falle said Local 966’s negotiators are prepared to put in the long hours necessary to achieve a settlement “that is fair to all parties and protects the public services residents of Peel Region depend on.”
However, she added that SHIP “needs to look at our members’ overwhelming rejection of their ‘final offer’ and the equally overwhelming mandate they’ve given their bargaining committee, and come to the bargaining table with serious proposals.”
For more information, please contact:
Mary Jo Falle
President, CUPE 966
905-502-6599
Kevin Wilson
CUPE Communications
416-821-6641