City of St. John's budget an attack on services, jobs - CUPE

ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR--(Marketwired - Dec. 17, 2015) - The union representing municipal inside and outside workers in the City of St. John's says this week's budget represents a reduction in services and jobs.

CUPE National Representative Derrick Barrett says CUPE locals 1289 (inside) and 569 (outside) have concerns about several aspects of the budget.

Barrett says, "Council is taking this city in a direction that is going to hurt residents and employees. They are pursuing privatization of public services, while at the same time reducing the municipal workforce through attrition. We all know that attrition is just a fancy word for layoffs."

"For example, the lateral service for sewer and water that's been provided to homeowners for a nominal fee is now being handed over to the private sector, which means residents will bear the brunt of the costs associated with this. These costs could be in the thousands of dollars," says Barrett.

Both locals are also concerned with workload issues that will come about due to some recent early retirements.

"We are concerned with how these retirements will affect current workload situations for our members", says Barrett. "We've asked for a meeting with City officials to have some further discussions surrounding this whole matter."