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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013
Theft from car, home
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VOL. 83. No. 18
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PINK SHIRT DAY INCLUDES BELLY DANCING FOR SOME
Williams Lake RCMP responded to a report of a theft from a vehicle on Feb. 23 at 2:45 p.m. The owner of the vehicle had stopped in the parking lot at the corner of Oliver St. and Fourth Ave South, to attend at a business in the area, leaving the vehicle unlocked while in the parking lot. A black and grey purse with personal contents was stolen from the vehicle. No suspects have been identified. Police responded to a report of a break and enter at a residence on Comer Street on Feb. 26 at 1:25 p.m. A resident said it appeared his house had been broken into by someone smashing a window into the kitchen, and two windows into the basement. Items stolen were a 51-inch Samsung Smart TV and six rings.
Inside the Tribune NEWS A2 Mayor talks community forest . SPORTS WLSS hosts b-ball zones.
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COMMUNITY A15 Grade 7s learn about trades. Weather outlook: Expect highs to 9C by Saturday.
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Monica Lamb-Yorski photo
Skyline school participated in Anti-Bullying Day Feb. 27, including gym students. Dressed in their pink anti-bullying shirts Charlotte Duggan (left), Robin Boston, Tori Rochefort and Cassidy McBride learn belly dancing during gym class.
City and union reach tentative agreement Monica Lamb-Yorski Tribune Staff Writer Picket lines went down in Williams Lake Wednesday as union city workers prepared to return to the job after the union reached a tentative agreement with the city. Around 110 members of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 882B began strike action on Feb. 16. Workers resumed work on Feb. 18, but by noon when the union walked away from the table because it did not feel the city was bargaining in good faith, the picket lines were back up. At around 9 p.m. Tuesday, a tentative agreement was reached that IUOE business manager Saundra Taylor said she’s confident her members will ratify over the weekend. “I don’t take a deal if I don’t think my members are going to ratify it,” Taylor said Wednesday. The agreement has to be ratified by council in an in-camera coun-
cil meeting being held Wednesday and then it can go to the union membership. Taylor was satisfied with the work of mediator Trevor Sones. “I’ve had him before. He’s pretty good. I was fairly confident that we would get a deal with his help and we did, but I think trying to do it earlier would not have been successful.” The two sides weren’t stalemated, she insisted. “I still go back to that. They weren’t bargaining with us. I think with his guidance and a little bit of pressure on both sides, thank goodness, we got an agreement.” Scones went back and forth between the union and the city — the two sides were never sitting in the same room. All along the union said it was being asked to take concessions. Now that they’ve reached an agreement, Taylor said it was give and take on both sides with the mediator’s help.
“Everybody had to realize you’re not going to get everything you want. I knew that going in, but I had a brand new bargaining team and I said to Trevor, maybe we should have agreed to this earlier, but honestly I don’t think if we had done it earlier, we would have been successful then.” The strike and everything is what moved both sides, she suggested.” “We had a hearing scheduled at the Labour Board Thursday because I had to file against them for threatening to cut the benefits. They were going to do that and I’ve never had that happen. It’s not a good thing. They need a lot of time to heal and at the 11th hour last night we weren’t sure that was going to happen either and I had to get my lawyer involved.” Taylor said the union does not want to release details of the agreement until after it is ratified. John Dube, IUOE 882 chief shop steward for the city and ser-
vice representative for the region, said crews were to go in Wednesday evening to prepare the complex for reopening and everyone else would return to work Thursday morning. Mayor Kerry Cook said council is excited to have reached a tentative agreement. “It’s great to see that the picket lines are down. Council is meeting tonight to discuss ratification,” Cook said. “This is something the union will have to do as well. It will be great to see business return to normal on Thursday morning, she added. “I think it’s really good news.” Dube said the union got what it could and now it’s time for the members to get back to work and service the public. “A strike is one of those things that you have to do, but it’s never pleasant by all means. If this was a perfect world, we wouldn’t have had to do the strike thing, but we had to do what we had to do.”