By Mark Squibb/July 22, 2022
There was plenty of music, dancing, complimentary hamburgers, selfies, and even a food truck, so you would have been excused for mistaking this week’s event at the City depot it as a Mount Pearl City Days event.
But of course, it wasn’t. In fact, though the City made no official announcement, the majority of next weeks City Days events will likely be cancelled in light of the ongoing CUPE strike that entered it’s second week this Thursday.
Strikers held a community appreciation and solidarity BBQ at the City depot parking lot Tuesday afternoon, joined by special guests including CUPE national president Mark Hancock, CUPE national secretary-treasurer Candace Rennick, NL CUPE president Sherry Hillier, CUPE 1349 president Ken Turner, and, Ziggy Peelgoods, St. John’s famous French fry truck— although Hiller said that that last guest almost didn’t make it.
“The chip truck that we hired to bring fires to the picketers, the City called us and said, we don’t have a catering license, well screw you Dana, we still got our chips here today,” said Sherry Hillier to thunderous applause from the well over 100 picketers that had gathered.
The City had also, according to Hillier, tried to remove picketer’s port-potties.
“And screw you again Dana, we still got our port-a-potties, and we’ll bring more,” shouted Hillier. “There’s not enough port-a-potties in Newfoundland and Labrador that we won’t have our port-a-potties on the picket line.”
Again, more applause.
City CAO Dana Spurrell was not the only person to take a ribbing from CUPE members. There were chants of ‘Aker the Faker’ at a mention of Mount Pearl mayor Dave Aker, and chants that McInnes Cooper labour lawyer Chris King “has got to go.”
Meanwhile, national representatives Mark Hancock and Candace Rennick assured picketers that CUPE has their back.– and CUPE’S
“We don’t want to be on strike,” said Hancock. “We would much rather be working, and providing those services to the great residents here. But sometimes you just got to say, ‘enough is enough.’ We’re coming out of COVID— at least I sure as hell hope we’re coming out of COVID— and for the last couple of years, the media, governments, employers, have been calling people like you heroes… workers on the front lines, workers like you, kept going to work every day, making sure that this city, and cities all across this country, kept running. They called you heroes. And is this the way that heroes are supposed to be treated my friends?”
Resounding shouts of ‘No!’ in return.
“The cost of living has skyrocketing, it’s up over seven percent across the country— in PEI it’s over 11 percent— and they’re offering you, I think the latest I heard is five percent over four years, how the hell does that math work? And they want you to have less benefits, how does that work? And even worse, in some ways, is they want to hire to have less than current members here of 2099, Does that make sense?”
No, no, and no again, according to the crowd.
“If this employer thinks that this is just about the 200 members of local 2099, they’ve got another thing coming my friends,” said Hancock. “Our message to mayor and council, and city administration and management, that your not just picking a fight with the 200 members here. You’re not just picking a fight with the members of CUPE Newfoundland and Labrador. You’re picking a fight with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) with over 700,000 members from coast to coast to coast.”
Perhaps even more importantly to picketers, CUPE national secretary-treasurer Candace Rennick assured them they have the support of the national strike fund, over $135 million strong.
“You will not go broke, you will not live in poverty on this picket line, we will provide you the support and the resources that you need,” said Rennick.
Members of Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees (NAPE), Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour, and Registered Nurses Union Newfoundland and Labrador (RNU NL) were also in attendance to show their support. Yvette Coffey, president of the RNU NL, presented a cheque to local president Ken Turner on behalf of the union.
Turner spoke with The Shoreline before the speeches got underway.
“We’re asking residents to continue to be patient, because we’re trying to work through this situation with our employer,” said Turner. “They’re not coming to the table; they’re not taking concessions off. We have nothing left. We’ve negotiated, and they’re not coming back. So, we need to get the message to council that, ‘You need to get back to the table. You need to get the concessions off.’ Our members are not going to leave people behind, we’re not going to agree to two-tiered systems. We’re not going to have our benefits slashed. And this is the situation we’re in.”
He said Aker is sending a mixed message to residents.
“He’s saying they’re ready to go back to the table when in fact, they don’t want to negotiate, and they never have,” said Turner. “We told them months ago that there are things that are never going to pass with our membership.”
He said members will not accept a two-tiered system.
“It creates division within the union, and we’re not going to have that,” said Turner. “We don’t believe that new workers should be treated any different than other worker. It doesn’t even make any sense. Everybody deserves to have the same benefits, they deserve to have fair wages, they deserve to live with dignity.”
He said accusations that have been levelled at the union by City representatives, including Akers comments that picketers had followed female staff person to their vehicles, making them feel very uncomfortable are a strategic tactic to see the public against picketers.
Other allegations that have been levelled against the picketers include an intimidation incident involving a Mount Pearl Minor Baseball volunteer and lowing of Canadian flags.
“Preferably, we hear about incidents before we hear about it on Open Line,” said Turner. “Some of these things that the mayor talked about hadn’t even gotten back to us.”
As to the incident at the baseball field, Turner admitted there was tension on the picket line.
“Parents were confused, and some got a little elevated when we tried to explain the situation,” said Turner. “But we moved it through. RNC was there, thankfully, and it was resolved.”
He said that claims about picketers preventing folks from using the skate park and lowering the Canadian flag at City Hall are false.
“I’m retired military, I’m not having a Canadian flag lowered at half-mast,” said Turner. “If the City had come to us and told us about these things, we would have dealt with them, and that could have been dealt with them internally. That doesn’t need to be dealt with on the public airwaves.”
Turner also said that, though you never can know the duration of strike action, he anticipated there would be more discussion between the union and the City.
“Council has the power, they truly do have the power to end this, with the stroke of a pen,” said Turner. “We can get theses workers back to work, and these kid’s summers back to normal.”
When asked, Turner denied that the decision to call the strike just as summer recreation programs and Mount Pearl City Days were getting underway was a strategic tactic by the union to put pressure on the City to move quickly to resolve the issue.
“When we started back in March, that absolutely was not on our mind at all, it was the furthest thing from my mind,” said Turner. “I thought we were in a good place with the City. We were having good conversations with the City. We started bargaining back in March, and as t eh bargaining continued on, we realized that things weren’t going well.”
In addition to invited guests, members of the St. John’s Regional Fire Department also made an appearance at the event, although only briefly and only to extinguish two burn barrels that were in contravention of the St. John’s fire departments open fire ban. Not to be deterred, picketers used the opportunity to take selfies with the fire truck, and firefighters gave a friendly honk of the horn as they went on their way.
