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MORE FROM THE MAYOR’S LAWSUIT
Reid Hamer-Jackson is suing Coun. Katie Neustaeter
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THE RUBE BAND IS SEEKING MEMBERS World famous ensemble wants musicians of all talent levels to join
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WEDNESDAY, August 16, 2023
ON AND OFF THE COURT AND FIELD
Get updated on all the sports news in the Tournament Capital of Canada
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kamloopsthisweek.com | kamloopsthisweek |
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2023 | Volume 36 No. 32
Arbitrator says city violated collective deal with union KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK
The long-awaited arbitration decision in the dispute between the City of Kamloops and the CUPE Local 900 union over restructuring of the city’s bylaws department has been released. However, as the decision rejected the main arguments of both the city and the union, it remains to be seen what remedies will flow from it. The arbitrator, Andrew Sims, is reserving remedial measures while giving the two sides time to negotiate an agreement. In his decision, Sims said the city was wrong in assuming it could impose new qualifications and requirements as part of the restructuring. He also dismissed the union’s belief that it had a contractual right to resist the creation of a new position and to arbitrate the issue if an impasse was reached. The City of Kamloops and
CUPE Local 900 went to arbitration at the end of March 2022 amidst a dispute over restructuring of the city’s bylaws department. In his decision, Sims found that while the city had the right to restructure the bylaws department, it violated its collective agreement with CUPE 900 by including “probation” in new job descriptions and by altering shift work. In addition, Sims found the city “prematurely and contrary to the collective agreement, advised the incumbent employees that, as a consequence of its reorganization, and its posting of the new position, their positions were eliminated.” Sims said the incumbent employees were entitled to continue in their positions until the city had obtained necessary permission to post jobs involving non-normal shifts and rotating shifts.
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BURNED OUT Repeated record fire seasons are taking their toll on wildland firefighters
BEN WESTERIK/ BC WILDFIRE SERVICE PHOTO
ZAK VESCERA LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE
R
iel Allain loved fighting fires and he had no plans to stop. In 2021, Allain was a smokejumper, among a group of elite firefighters who leap from planes to form the first line of defence against wildfires. Allain joined the BC Wildfire Service out of university in 2016, thinking fighting fires sounded better See CITY, A7 than office drudgery.
The 2021 season was one of the worst on record. That was the year of the heat dome, when the Village of Lytton burned to the ground and record temperatures were set — 49.6 C in Lytton and 47.3 C in Kamloops. Nearly 8,700 square kilometres of forests were set ablaze by 1,600 fires, many of which crept dangerously close to communities. But Allain entered the 2021 season in high spirits. He had been a smoke jumper since 2017, had seen his share of bad seasons and wanted to pursue firefighting as a full-time career. That year, Allain made the deci-
sion to quit his firefighting job. He is among scores of veterans who have left B.C.’s professional wildfire team in recent years, even as the province’s fire seasons get longer and more destructive as a result of climate change. Allain and other firefighters say that has made the service more dependent on the new, young recruits it trains each year to meet the demands of worsening fire seasons. “I just didn’t see it as a career anymore,” Allain said. See EXPERIENCE, A12
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