By Mark Squibb/July 8, 2022
The Marlins Swim Club have registered over 200 swimmers for over eight summer swim camps, but now a city-wide strike, which has shuttered the Summit Centre and other community facilities, has left them without a pool to swim in.
“As of right now, those camps are being moved to a location without a pool, so they are no longer ‘swim camps,’ they are just programs providing activities,” said head coach Duffy Earle, who, Thursday morning, said the club is still in the process of scouting out those locations. “We are doing our best to still offer programming. I think it is a fantastic program to be a part of, so hopefully they stick with us during this time period and manage to hang in there until we get back to regular programming.”
Refunds are available to those who choose to back out of the program.
The swim camps, said Earle, double as recruiting grounds for the September swim program.
“We also have kids training for Canada Games, and those kids are now searching for pool time at other pools, so that as well is a big impact,” she added.
Having heard rumblings that strike action may be forthcoming, the Club had secured pool times at other pools for higher level competitive swimmers. “Though it’s certainly not the same as training in our home facility,” said Earle.
The Club had hired on 12 staff to work over the summer, many of them students preparing for university. That staff has, for the time being, been reduced to just four due to the impacts of the strike action on club activities.
“We have eight people that have lost eight weeks of summer employment,” said Earle. “This will affect their ability to save and pay for university in the fall, so there’s quite a broad impact on a lot of families and a lot of people in different ways.”
How long the club members will have to wait until they’re back in Summit Centre waters depends on negotiations between the City and Members of (CUPE) Local 2099, who declared the strike Thursday morning.
“We’re in limbo now, the same as everybody else, hoping to hear that negotiations go well and hopefully move quickly and they reach an agreement, so we can get back in there as soon as possible,” said Earle.
CUPE 2099 represents over 200 municipal workers who work in recreation services, administration, taxation and finance, road maintenance, water and sewage, facilities maintenance, landscape maintenance, engineering, planning, and more.
“We don’t want to be on strike, but our employer refuses to bargain a fair collect agreement,” said Ken Turner, CUPE 2099 president, in a press release. “One of the main issues is they want to set-up a two-tier system with inferior benefits for new hires. We won’t accept a contract that doesn’t provide the same rights and benefits for ‘all’ workers.”
CUPE says that members have been in collective bargaining with the city since March.
Thursday morning’s strike comes just two weeks prior to Mount Pearl’s inaugural City Days celebrations.
The Best in Mount Pearl Awards show and a Seniors Tea were scheduled to take place at the Reid Centre, while a free Aquafit class was to take place at the Summit Centre — both currently closed due to the strike.
Mayor Dave Aker addressed residents via a social media video early Thursday morning. He assured residents that Summer Day Camps would continue, and the City would be ‘doing their best’ to maintain soccer, rugby, and baseball fields — though made no mention of City Days.
Garbage collection will continue on a reduced, bi-weekly basis, although recycling collection has been suspended for the time being.
Last Thursday, members of CUPE 2099 met outside City Hall to protest while council held its regularly scheduled public meeting inside.
