CUPE CUP E ac actt io ion n members on the front line UNIVERSITIES BEGIN JOB ACTION After more than two years of waiting to talk the talk, B.C.’s universities sector is ready to walk the walk. Strike mandates are in place at UVic, UBC, UNBC and TRU (SFU was voting at press time). The main issues for CUPE’s 12,000 university support and teaching staff remain job security, inflation protection, and fair and reasonable wages. Clouding the bargaining climate is a provincial government that vowed to chop $70 million from post-secondary budgets while insisting on no wage increases for 2010-11 and ‘Savings Plan’ approval for 2012-13. First out have been CUPE locals 917 and 951 at UVic, which launched job action on September 5. More locals were expected to follow.
ATTENTIVE AUDIENCE Barry O’Neill’s presentation on the Ten Percent Shift attracted a large crowd in Quesnel on July 19.
Ramping up the Ten Percent Shift Local first campaign bags award, gains traction in B.C. and across Canada BUR NABY | CUPE BC’s Ten Percent
ON THE LINE Members of UVic’s CUPE locals participated in the first job action on September 5. At press time, UVic and CUPE had scheduled more bargaining talks.
Shift campaign to support local economies and businesses has come a long way since it was “soft launched” last year, with an endorsement from Vancouver city council, an international communications award for tenpercentshift.ca, and almost daily requests for presentations in communities all over the province. CUPE BC president Barry O’Neill has now delivered the Shift presentation to dozens of organizations and community forums in B.C., as well as in almost
every other province. This fall, plans were shaping up for a Shift tour of the Kootenays in October, followed by presentations on Vancouver Island and in Powell River. “We are also in discussions to put together a ‘local economies summit’ meeting in 2013 that would bring together local first activists from all over North America,” says O’Neill. Meanwhile, the Ten Percent Shift campaign recently picked up a bronze medal for best community website at the 2012 Summit Creative Awards, a prestigious international competition. To see the award-winning site – and take the Ten Percent Shift pledge – check out tenpercentshift.ca.
Rhonda Spence named B.C.’s assistant regional director
Spence
B UR N A B Y | Rhonda Spence is CUPE’s new assistant regional director for B.C., replacing Rob Hewitt who has returned to his servicing assignment in Kelowna. Spence first joined CUPE in 1983. She spent ten years on the CUPE BC executive before being hired on staff in 1994, and worked on a number of temporary posts before her first permanent assignment with the airline division.
As well as union development and various servicing assignments, Spence helped develop CUPE BC’s direct member contact campaigns while sitting on the Strong Communities working group. Also known for her global justice work, she served as staff advisor to CUPE National’s Global Justice committee and spent nearly four years as CUPE’s senior officer for international solidarity. She was also president of CoDevelopment Canada. FALL 2012
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