LETTER: City, union negotiations getting costly

To the editor:

After talking to a number of present city employees and hearing their frustration over the amount of time it is taking the city to come to an agreement with CUPE, I contacted the union as a taxpayer to see why negotiations are taking so long.

It was explained to me the union had filed for conciliation to try to expedite the bargaining process with the city as the process was taking much too long. It’s unfortunate that the union has to sit for hours at a time waiting for responses from the city.
It has now been 13 months since the last collective agreement expired. To date, the city has met with the union approximately 12 times with more meetings to come.

Two general managers (who make more than $100,000 per year plus fringe benefits), four managers and two human resources consultants make up the city’s bargaining committee. There are seven union members who make up the union committee at a much lesser wage cost.

The taxpayer is paying the bill for 15 people – eight management and seven union – to attend these meetings. After doing some monetary calculations, the cost to the taxpayer is almost enough to keep the Municipal Golf Course operating for the year.

I’m calling on Mayor Keith Hobbs to get involved and put an end to the reckless spending of the taxpayers’ money. Why not send decision-makers to these meetings and finish negotiations?

James Pearce,
Thunder Bay