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“This announcement assures continuity of service and stability for the travelling public. Our front-line members want to work with Mainroad to ensure roads in the region are safe and maintained to the highest standards.” — Rory Smith, BCGEU Vice-President Operational Services
Vancouver (27 April 2016) — B.C.'s Ministry of Transportation recently announced a seven-year agreement with Mainroad Contracting to maintain highways in the East Kootenays.
Well-trained, experienced members continue to care for highways
“This is good news for our members, the travelling public, and other stakeholders who rely on well-maintained highways, roads and bridges in the area,” said Stephanie Smith, President of the B.C. Government and Services Employees' Union (BCGEU/NUPGE). “Our local crews know the local roads. The collective agreement we have with Mainroad ensures that our well-trained, experienced members will continue to maintain highways in the East Kootenays. This will also protect sustainable, family supporting jobs in the region.”
“This announcement assures continuity of service and stability for the travelling public,” said Rory Smith, BCGEU Vice-President Operational Services. “Our front-line members want to work with Mainroad to ensure roads in the region are safe and maintained to the highest standards.”
Prior to today’s announcement, BCGEU/NUPGE members negotiated and ratified a seven-year collective agreement with Mainroad in the event that they were the successful bidder.
Government needs to invest in making roads safer, not on cutting costs
More than two dozen highways maintenance contracts will expire across all of B.C. in the next few years. The B.C. government needs to make safe roads — not cost cutting — the priority. This means all requests for proposal must ensure that well-trained, experienced highways workers are retained in the event the maintenance contracts change hands.
The BCGEU’s Safe Highways campaign has promoted public awareness about issues related to highways maintenance.
Please sign the petition. Encourage others to sign it. VisitSafeHighways.ca and tell the B.C. Premier to make safety the priority through professional, experienced, highways workers maintaining our roads.
NUPGE
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 360,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE