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Bargaining continues for 15,000 community social service workers in B.C.
Vancouver (11 June 2012) -The multi-union bargaining committee in B.C., the Community Social Services Bargaining Association, (CSSBA) presented its monetary proposals to the employer during the latest week of bargaining, including wage and benefit demands.
The employer tabled their wage and benefit proposals and responded to the unions when bargaining resumed.
Union representatives have made it clear that community social service workers deserve a fair and reasonable deal, including a wage increase. The bargaining committee is also pushing back on concessionary demands by the employer, including revisiting improvements gained in the last round of bargaining with respect to job selection and bumping.
However, the employer – the Community Social Services Employers Association (CSSEA) – has already indicated that they are bound by the government's "co-operative gains" mandate, whereby modest wage increases can be found only by finding savings within existing budgets.
Regarding health and welfare benefits improvements, the union bargaining committee has now finished reviewing proposals for improvements. As part of the committee’s due diligence, union representatives met with several benefit carriers as well as with WorkSafeBC - the Workers' Compensation Board of B.C. Essential service levels for all the agencies and all the worksites will be completed very soon.
It appears that the parties may be far apart, especially on monetary issues. Even with bargaining dates scheduled until end of June, the next few bargaining sessions are critical.
The CSSBA includes nine unions with a combined membership of about 15,000. The B.C. Government and Service Employees 'Union (BCGEU/NUPGE) is the largest union in the community social services sector, representing about two-thirds of workers. the Health Sciences Association of B.C. (HSABC/NUPGE), the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), and the Hospital Employees Union (HEU/CUPE) are also in the association.
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