The TSSU is a member of the Vancouver District Labour Council and have three reps on the council. Here is what is going this month in Vancouver (Two lockouts including Richmond IKEA & North Shore Winter Club, Final week of Bill C-377 debate, Solidarity with Turkish protesters, and more):
1) There are two lockouts in progress in the Vancouver area
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A. CUPE 398- locked out from the North Shore Winter Club.
- Employer is using replacement workers (scabs). The union recently won a decision at the labour board because the the scab issue.
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B. Teamsters Local 213- locked out from IKEA Richmond ( the situation is dire)
- IKEA is using scabs in spite of a labour board decision against this practice
- IKEA wants to introduce a tiered wage system and increase the number of hours worked per week to qualify for benefits
- IKEA is using the ultimate receding horizon in bargaining, every day that the union does not settle they remove something from the proposals
- IKEA also wants to contract out the cleaning positions at the Richmond stores
- The Teamsters Union has voted on three separate proposals from IKEA, the last one was rejected by 84% of the membership.
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The BC federation of labour has sent out a call to all affiliate unions not to patronize IKEA until this situation has been resolved.
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2) Bill 377 - the bill to amend the income tax law to make all unions file detailed financial statements to the public is
being debated in the senate THIS WEEK. After this week the debate will probably close and it will be put to a vote. Email your senators and sign this petition!
http://cupe.ca/action/senate-c-377.
3) The VDLC adopted a motion in solidarity with the striking trade unionists and protesters in Turkey and condemn the actions of president Erdogan
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4) The VDLC adopted a motion to write a letter of opposition against the recent move to levy a 25$ per month wheel chair user fee on seniors in care homes.
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5) The VDLC hosts educational workshops for interested union members, workshops are all day events, they cost 50$ and include lunch this month we have:
-how to run an effective union election
-learning about the legalities of the collective bargaining procedure
If anyone is interested in the workshops please email tssu(at)tssu.ca and we can let you know who to contact.
