Cornwall Ontario – CUPE sent out a release today.
The four CUPE locals who have been on strike in Cornwall have each ratified their tentative agreements. Assuming City Council and the Library Board both ratify from management’s side today, people will return to work on Tuesday.
Oddly enough more questions are being asked now than during the strike. For instance if the sole reason for the impasse that led to a two year contract delay and strike was in fact the clawback of sick leave by the city why didn’t CUPE communicate that to the media and public?
Likewise, how did the city end up hiring a HR poohbah that clearly didn’t know that CUPE would never give up on that issue?
Going by comments made by Councilor Rivette we can see that some of the very councilors that the Labour Council rubber stamped in the last election let the unions down and hard.
No word of the exact agreement has been released, but it should be interesting to see how much of the time on strike that CUPE leveraged after our interview with ex HR manager Robert Menagh broke the back of the strike?
And while we’re mentioning Menagh, why didn’t Ms Adams allow him to apply for the open Labour negotiator position in the HR department? He was let go without cause and his record in Cornwall clearly was positive?
Will this council hold Geoff Clarke and Maureen Adams responsible for this very expensive and divisive mess or are her family ties in the community to strong(a local judge and political active lawyer in the fam) for a weak, spineless, and ignorant council to hold accountable?
Add in back rises as the new contract would normally start when the old one ended and it looks like another massive tax increase for ratepayers in Cornwall in 2019!
What do you think of this less than three penny opera dear CFN viewers? You can post your comments below.
The city saved a lot of $$ I’m sure the hiring of Clarke’s new manager is set to go. You would think council would step in and stop this or Adams herself. Clarke was hired for labor relations, and the city has a qualified safety person, why would they not ask him to be corporate safety, what would it cost vs what a new person would cost? As for Menagh, never Jamie. We do not want that back.
Menagh! His record in Cornwall clearly was positive? Jamie, come on, he was a huge part in multiple employee abuse claims one that led to the city being charged by the MOL as he walked off with well over 300g’s in taxpayer money. This guy is scum, just ask the city of Hamilton, or hit Google folks and see for yourselves.
You never, and CUPE is a perfect example of this, negotiate in the media or in the public. That’s where rumours start and things get clusterf**ked.
Hugger how do you define no contract for two years and a strike? Not a CF?
It was just that a giant clusterf**k. There is no logical (but we are talking about city council, so…..) reason for no contracts for four locals for 2 and 3 years. I was responding to the question why CUPE didn’t communicate that a sick leave clawback was the reason for the impasse. You never negotiate in the media or in the public.