05. Vancouver civic strike: NPA facing stronger pressure

Vancouver civic strike: NPA facing stronger pressure

(The following article is from the September 16-30, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Kimball Cariou

     Nearly two months after Vancouver's civic employees hit the bricks in July, the city management may finally be willing to enter into serious bargaining. As this issue went to press on Sept. 10, talks were scheduled to begin between the city and the three striking locals: CUPE 1004 (outside workers), CUPE 15 (inside workers), and CUPE 391 (library workers).

     Similar contracts have been settled for weeks in almost every other municipality in the Lower Mainland region, but until now, Vancouver's right-wing NPA mayor and councillors have dragged their heels, relying on public relations gimmicks and buck-passing to delay a settlement.

     But as Labour Day came and went, the attempts by Mayor Sam Sullivan to shrug off the strike as virtually a non-issue were wearing thin. Recent surveys indicate that Sullivan's personal popularity is taking a huge hit, just a year before the next civic election. And while the corporate media has done little to explain the key issues behind the strikes, awareness is gradually growing that civic workers have good reasons to stay strong and united on the picket lines.

     One example is the issue of "whistle-blower protection," which is a key item for CUPE. There have been increasing revelations of employees disciplined or fired for challenging corruption and mismanagement at higher levels, forcing the city brass to acknowledge the problem. But their solution is to rewrite policy guidelines rather than to include whistle-blower protection in the collective bargaining agreements. Since other local municipalities have begun writing protections into contracts, Vancouver's bureaucrats and politicians are widely perceived to be protecting their own behinds at the expense of taxpayers and employees.

     Then there's the issue of job security for civic employees, many of whom remain in precarious situations for years or even decades, hired on as temporary, part-time or contract workers, often without benefits or protections. The contradiction between the city's mean-spirited penny-pinching and its claims of "world class" status are glaringly obvious.

     For library workers, on strike for the first time since their union was formed 77 years ago, the matter of pay equity is crucial. The largely female library staff, most of whom are skilled professionals, still get lower pay rates than other categories of civic workers which are mainly male. Their struggle for equity is finally winning wider public attention and support.

     The recent militancy of the library workers may have been sparked inadvertently last spring by management, which scrapped the library's unique bindery operation over strong public objections. The city claimed the cut was a necessary "cost-saving measure" but was not able to back up its assertion. Seeing the move as an attack on their union, the library workers became more determined than ever to fight for their rights, and their picket lines and website have become powerful and creative tools for mobilizing public support.

     Some of that support was evident on Sept. 8, when the library workers organized a benefit concert for their "hardship fund" at the Maritime Labour Centre. The hall was jammed with hundreds of Local 391 members and supporters, and the mood was cautiously optimistic at news that negotiations might soon be back on track.

     A week earlier, nearly 2,000 union members rallied at City Hall to back their local leaderships, in response to a clumsy attempt by management to bypass negotiations with two "offers" mailed by courier to the unions.

     Looking at the strike from another angle, the city's claims of poverty are in sharp contrast to its real financial situation. City spokesperson Jerry Dobrovolny, for example, has claimed that the unions "need to reduce their expectations to be more in line with the fiscal realities of Vancouver taxpayers."

     But to quote the 2007 Vancouver Budget, "2007 assessment values have broken all previous records... Not only is growth in the assessment base a good indicator of the City's economic health, it also brings in new property taxes to the City, which reduces the tax burden on existing taxpayers."

     Building permit values were up 552% in November 2006 over a year earlier. Total city revenues increased 5.5% in 2006, and net taxation revenue increased 5.2%. Actual revenues turned out to be $24 million higher than budgeted for 2006. Between 2005 and 2006, total operating revenue increased $47.3 million while operating expenditures increased only $32.6 million. The 2007 Budget forecast total revenues to increase 4.3%, thanks to a whopping 8% rise in residential property taxes to allow a freeze on business tax rates.   According to information posted on the CUPE BC website, "Vancouver's economy and finances have never been healthier. City revenues are up, the operating budget is in surplus, business tax rates have been frozen, costs for contracting are up 47%, administration costs are up, Vancouver managers are very highly paid, the portion of property taxes paid to Vancouver is higher than in municipalities that have already settled with their civic workers this year and City of Vancouver has huge financial reserves.

     "The `fiscal reality' is that the City of Vancouver is in as good or better a financial position than Richmond, Surrey, Burnaby, Delta, District of North Vancouver or White Rock to put an end to the strikes now by negotiating fair collective agreements with Vancouver civic workers."