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WHISTLER, BC Last night, employees with the Resort Municipality of Whistler gave their bargaining committee an unprecedented 100 per cent mandate to strike.

The workers, members of CUPE Local 2010, are responding to employer demands to rollback benefits, eliminate set hours of work and deny them an allowance to offset the high cost of living in Whistler.

This is about fairness, says CUPE national representative and chief negotiator Robin Jones. Whistler is a booming resort community. There is no justification for cutting back on the basic rights and benefits that all workers in Whistler deserve.

CUPE Local 2010 wants the resort municipality to recognize and compensate municipal workers for the higher cost of living in Whistler through an allowance. Anyone who has been to Whistler knows that everything costs about 30 percent more, says Jones. Our employer ought to respect that their municipal workers dont only work in this community, they also live here.

Without progress at the bargaining table, says Jones, we could be making an application to strike as early as next week.

Unfair labour practice charges filed by the union against the Resort Municipality of Whistler in June 2004 remain unresolved.

CUPE Local 2010 (Canadian Union of Public Employees) represents 30 by-law enforcement officers, wastewater treatment and utilities workers in the Resort Municipality of Whistler.

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Contact:
Robin Jones, CUPE National Representative, (604) 314-6586;
Diane Kalen, CUPE Communications, (604) 291-1940, ext. 240.