Dear editor,
I can appreciate the fact you do not want to take sides in your opinion piece on Oct. 1, 2015: ‘This marriage clearly needs help,’ fair enough, but I do need to respond to clear up any misconception that the Burnaby Firefighters Association is at fault for any of this.
It was our Local who initiated this round of bargaining, not delaying it as Coun. Paul McDonell is quoted as saying. If the City of Burnaby wanted to start bargaining sooner, why did they wait for us to come to them? Historically, Firefighters in B.C. go one, even two years without a new collective agreement once the old one has expired. This has been the historical pattern between Local 323 and the City of Burnaby for my entire 21-year career.
Our main issue with our employer, who takes direction from mayor and council, is they want us to actually take less to work in Burnaby. You speculate in your opinion piece that maybe it’s something on the firefighter’s “wish list” that we don’t want to give up. I can tell you that is not the case. In February 2015, at mediation, we took all of our demands off the table and strictly asked for terms and wages only. We asked for the identical arbitrated settlements from Vancouver and Prince George, which is four years, 2.5 per cent per year with full retroactive pay. The City of Burnaby said, ‘No’ and walked out.
They keep telling us that we have to give up “something” that we already have to get the wage increase. Thirty one other Local’s and their employers have freely negotiated a new collective agreement, with a variety of different length of terms. Some four years, seven years and eight years, but the wage is all the same 2.5 per cent per year. In all, 31 negotiated settlements the Local did not have to give up anything to get the terms and wages that were agreed to. Even in the two arbitrated settlements, identical deals by two different arbitrators. The Prince George arbitration was done by Vince Ready, but even that is not good enough for the City of Burnaby.
If you really want to talk about delaying or stalling, why did it take the City of Burnaby five months to finally agree on an arbitrator, one that we first proposed back in March?
Maybe the citizens should ask why their tax dollars are going to an arbitration that everyone knows what the final outcome will be. All we are looking for is a fair and reasonable settlement and maybe on the way we’ll get some respect too.
Regards,
Rob Lamoureux
President
Burnaby Firefighters Association
IAFF Local 323
