Wednesday, February 16, 2011

In labour news...will the HSA "vote no" campaign have an impact on the wage freeze?

I reported earlier about several CUPE locals that have voted overwhelmingly to reject a contract proposal under the government mandated wage freeze. The locals bargain together with a component of the HSA for a single "HSPBA" collective agreement.

Unfortunately, the HSA bargaining team is recommending the tentative agreement. But there is substantive resistance amongst some members. A website, hsavoteno.wordpress.com is blogging to convince HSA members to vote no.

Even if the overall vote is a yes in the end, this represents a significant shift in the mood of public sector union members in relation to the wage freeze. A sizeable number are willing to reject contracts that meet the "net zero" mandate.

And so they should.

This mandate is a wage cut for BC's public sector workers at a time when others are receiving modest increases. Inflation is now pushing up above 2.5%, meaning any wage freeze in a two year agreement (which they all are) equals a 5 - 6% pay cut. And not just for this year,...but for every year after unless that cut is subsequently reversed - a much more difficult prospect than maintaining cost of living increases.

Is this justified? Since the Liberals came to power in 2001, while private sector wages have increased on average 25% over the decade, public sector wages rose only 17% (averages based on data from Statistics Canada). Government interference and wage mandates have had an unfair impact and it is time for public sector workers to say no.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for your support! We do have a big fight ahead of us if we want to save our public services; the trend right now is for governments to cut costs in favour of corporate tax cuts. This might be good for a few people who own shares in VERY BIG business, but it's not good for the rest of us! There is a lot we can do because we are organized into unions, and so much more that we can do united as a labour movement. Keep in touch and we'll do the same!
    On behalf of HSA Vote No,
    Miriam Martin

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  2. Two more days until the results of the vote will be known. It was very irresponsbile for the HSA Leadership to reccomend a Tentative Agreement that would be so divisive amongst the membership.

    Leadership that is totally out of touch with the membership.

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