The Services Employees’ International Union (SEIU) has solidly rejected the South East Cornerstone Public School Division’s final offer of a proposed contract and has now requested the services of a conciliator.
After soundly rejecting the latest offer by a significant margin, about 260 Cornerstone employees are looking for a new direction to negotiations, said SEIU-West president Barbara Cape, who spoke with the Mercury on Jan. 26 following the tabulation of the votes.
Although she was not able to reveal the exact voting numbers or percentage, Cape said the rejection margin was significant and the voter turnout among the membership was also strong as they realized “the seriousness of this situation to the membership.”
Cape gave assurances that while the vote gave the union members a mandate to strike, they were still a long way from taking any work-related action.
“This application for a conciliator is just Step 2 in a long process,” she said.
Shelley Toth, chief financial officer for Cornerstone, said that they too, had forwarded a letter to the provincial Labour Minister requesting the appointment of a conciliator because the offer that was rejected, had been Cornerstone’s final.
What could make the situation a little messy is the fact that a good faction of Cornerstone’s other unionized non-teacher employees, who are members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees have already agreed to a contract that was similar in time and scope to the one that has now been rejected by their SEIU counterparts.
The offer presented to SEIU was a two-year deal with a two per cent hike in wages for each of those years. The last contract expired in August, 2014.
The two unions represent employees such as bus drivers, administrative support services, cafeteria staff, caretakers and maintenance staffers as well as educational assistants, among others.
“Disruption of service would be the last resort, but we don’t want to see people treated unfairly either,” said Cape.
Toth said she and others in her department were not aware as to how long it will take for the ministry to appoint a conciliator so the two sides can get back to negotiations. Until then, the employees will continue to work under the details provided in the previous contract.
“Everyone knows that southeast Saskatchewan is growing at a faster rate. Accommodation costs are sky high in that region and it’s difficult to retain qualified people. Other industries are paying more for qualified people so we’re losing them to other interests,” said Cape.
“We still have a number of avenues to go down yet, that’s why I can give assurances there will not be any job action … yet.”
Cape said SEIU and Cornerstone have now exchanged correspondence regarding the latest outcome and she said she is certain that other school divisions, like Chinook, in the southwest area, which is also in a bargaining position, are keeping a close eye on what transpires at Cornerstone.
“We settled with Holy Family, the other school division in the southeast region, last spring and we signed a three-year contract with wage hikes of 2.5 per cent in each year, so there are some benchmarks. The members are watching as well as other divisions hoping that a rising tide will, in fact, lift all boats,” said Cape. “The members are fully aware of who is driving this bus, if you’ll pardon the irony of that statement.”
Toth said both sides will have to remain in “waiting mode” until they hear from the Labour Ministry regarding their dual request for the appointment of a conciliator.
