CUPE opposed to unpaid days off
June 21, 2013 at 2:34 PM
As you may be aware, on June 20, the City's Standing Policy Committee on Finance adopted a motion asking City administration to look at how much money would be saved by having non-essential civic employees take Fridays off without pay during the summer and possibly in the fall.
The motion, which was tabled by Deputy Mayor, Russ Wyatt who is Chair of the City's Finance Committee, claims that the City has to come up with $74 million in order to balance its budget, and believes about $14 million would be saved if employees took 13 days off.
"We have a collective agreement in place and these types of discussions should not be held outside the bargaining process," said Local 500 President, Mike Davidson.
Davidson said that the City should be looking at other ways to save money, such as bringing garbage and recycling services back in-house.
"We've told the City many times to bring these services back in-house and pass those savings along to the citizens of Winnipeg," he said. "Instead, they want to try and balance the budget on the backs of its employees - this is simply wrong and quite frankly, shameful."
The Local has not yet been approached by the City or provided with any details of the proposal.
"We have many questions and concerns about this so called "unpaid days off" proposal and until we know the full details, we are not able to provide our membership with any concrete information," Davidson said. "The City already has budgeted $13 million in vacancy management savings. This proposal will make things even worse and reduce the City's operational capacity to deliver front-line services to its citizens."
The Local will be monitoring this issue over the coming weeks. Please watch for further updates as more information becomes available.
