Dear DCS members, Lead Table bargaining came to a halt on September 27th after two days of unproductive conciliation meetings. Since that time Local 3067, New Dawn, took a strike vote with 100 percent of members voting in favour. Many Locals are working on their Essential Services plans in preparation for taking strike votes. Nine of the 19 Locals affected by the Essential Services Act are close to having their Essential Services agreement in place. Your CUPE representatives met on October 6 to strategize about how we can all work together to put pressure on the government to come back to the table and bargain fairly, or really to bargain at all! Because there has been virtually no bargaining at the Lead Table, other than a final offer. It is challenging to organize information pickets and do strike planning when we are geographically scattered and have locals that have only … Read more…

Employees at New Dawn Guest Home, a residential care facility in Sydney, have voted 100 percent in favour of job action. The voting took place over the last two days. The 24 employees are members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 3067, and are the lead table for sector bargaining under the Department of Community Services. Bargaining stalled after two days of conciliation last week with many items still on the table, including wages and pensions. CUPE has been pushing for a defined benefits pension plan for all members throughout the sector. Right now only a handful of locals have defined benefit plans. “Wages are the main issue for this local,” says CUPE National Representative Kathy MacLeod. “These employees earn only 90 percent of what their counterparts make at other facilities across the province.” MacLeod says this discrepancy stems back to a 2008 government review that determined, … Read more…