Contrary to what Baie-Comeau town council announced last night, CUPE, which represents the some 120 white-collar and blue-collar workers employed by the town, wishes to point out that just one employee – the parking attendant – will have the authority to issue tickets. Note that this responsibility is already included in that person’s duties.
Some were left to understand that, going forward, municipal employees would be tasked with enforcing social distancing measures and given the authority to issue tickets to uncooperative citizens.
The union does point out that this will not be the case, because during recent discussions with the employer, it was agreed that the squad established would consist of town firefighters.
“However, some white-collar workers did volunteer to collaborate with the employer to raise the public’s awareness of the importance of complying with social distancing measures and all of the health directives issued in our community,” said Myriam Marin, the President of the Syndicat des cols blancs de la Ville de Baie-Comeau.
Union members showed they were quite flexible on the issue of their working conditions to ensure that public health recommendations would be enforced to fight COVID-19.
“The employees showed good faith and great generosity when they made a sizeable financial contribution to the L’Escale de Baie-Comeau food counter. They also offered their support to the town in cases where community organizations would need workers,” pointed out the CUPE union representative Charlaine Sirois.