Kootenay Lake School Board chair delivers strong message to government
By Nelson Daily Staff
The Kootenay Lake School Board is mad as hell and is not going to take it anymore.
Chairperson Mel Joy told CBC Daybreak South Thursday morning the Kootenay Lake School Board is refusing to fund the 3.5 percent wage increase to CUPE support workers out of the current budget.
Instead Joy is telling the provincial government “there is no way that we could rebalance our budgets without affecting services to kids.”
The decision by the Kootenay Lake School Board comes following a negotiated tentative settlement between the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the BC Public Schools Employers’ Association (BCPSEA).
The Framework Agreement was unanimously endorsed by the CUPE BC K-12 Provincial Bargaining Sub-Committee and will be recommended to the CUPE BC K-12 Presidents’ Council for endorsement.
However, the government did not send any money along to school boards in the province to cover the 3.5 percent wage increase — one per cent increase retroactive to July 1, two per cent on February 1, 2014, and 0.5 per cent on May 1, 2014.
Joy said the Kootenay Lake School Board sent a letter in the spring to the Ministry of Education expressing concerns over the ramifications of the bargaining process.
To this day, Joy said no one from the ministry responded to the letter.
“We are saying to the ministry, there is no way we can rebalance our budget without affecting services to kids,” Joy said in the radio interview.
“And we also believe if the ministry is going to be at the table bargaining then they need to have the same amount of pressure that the districts and CUPE have when we come back to try to work out the deal.”
School Board in the province have an ally in their fight with the government.
CUPE recently issued a release a statement on his website supporting trustees in calling on the provincial government to invest in public education with the necessary funds to push the tentative agreement through.
“This is the deal the BC Government negotiated, and so they are required to fund this agreement,” said Colin Pawson, chair of the CUPE BC K-12 Presidents’ Council.
“Under the government’s own cooperative gains mandate services that affect students cannot be cut.”
Joy said the wage settlement would have an approximate hit of $600,000 over a number of years to School District No. 8.
While Joy did say the district currently has a surplus earmarked for unexpected problems that may result during the budget year, number crunchers would need to find around $380,000 in the budget to cover the wage increase next year.
Kootenay Lake is the only school board in the province not to come up with savings within its district to fund the wage settlement to CUPE.
However, Joy feels Kootenay Lake is not alone in this fight with the government.
“I think what is different is the way we’re relaying out message,” Joy went on to say.
“The boards out there within the province are writing letters and saying to the minister that they expect that these increases should be funded from the ministry and this is our way of stating the same message.
“We really hope the districts within the province are supporting the action that we’re taking.”
Kootenay CUPE Local 748 represents all employees in the School District No. 8 except members of the Kootenay Lake Teachers’ Federation and excluded management positions.
Kootenay Lake School District No. 8 stretches from Yahk in the east to Slocan City in the west, Salmo in the south and Meadow Creek in the north.
CUPE locals serving School Boards across the province have been without a contact since June 30, 2012.
Bargaining started in the fall of 2012. The two sides found no reason to continue after hitting an impasse after roughly eight sessions according to CUPE Local 748 president Michelle Bennett.
Bennett said wage increases and seniority at the local level are the two key issues in negotiations.
Bargaining between Kootenay Lake School Board and CUPE Local 748 is scheduled to resume October 28-30.
