CUPE Local 4747 ratifies new agreement with Living Sky School Division

CUPE 4747 President Brenda Cubbon said the agreement was a challenging one.

“It was a very tough round of negotiations,” she said. “I do feel the board was fair with what they had to work with, and what’s happening to other school divisions within the province. I felt we were pretty close to par with what other school divisions were giving their support staff for an increase for a three-year contract.”

While the union had asked for a little bit more, it appreciated the fact that the provincial government has mandated a cut-back to all school divisions.

“We understand that the school divisions are on a very tight budget,” Cubbon said. “It was extremely difficult to squeeze any more out of them than what they were offering.”

She said the union did compromise a little bit, it wasn’t significant because members were aware of the school division’s challenges.

“We understand what our government is doing to our school divisions — making it tough for school divisions to operate on a very restricted budget,” she said.

The union was hoping for a little something more for the last year of the agreement, even another one per cent increase, but saw the school division wouldn’t budge.

So a compromise was reached.

“I said if I want this to pass I need it to be a little bit more juicy at the front end, than the back end of a collective agreement,” Cubbon said.

Living Sky School Division board member and bargaining committee chair Ron Kowalchuk was pleased the two parties managed to reach an agreement.

He said the committee was satisfied it was able to secure a three-year agreement with the union.

“It was a mutual agreement; I don’t think they had any trouble ratifying it, and the board was happy,” Kowalchuk said.

“It’s the cost of living, and also we looked at the average increases across the province,” he added. “We thought we would be fair.”

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow

by Angela Brown

CUPE Local 4747 ratifies new agreement with Living Sky School Division

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