Image: Trevor Nichols
Members of the union representing Kelowna’s jail guards held a rally outside city hall today, calling on mayor Colin Basran to help them reach a deal with their employer.
The 17 Kelowna guards are represented by CUPE Local 338, and recently voted in support of strike action.
CUPE has been sparring with Commissionaires BC for months, over what the union feels are “unacceptable” wages.
The City of Kelowna contracts Commissioners to provide jail guards at the Kelowna RCMP detachment. Those guards make $16.50 an hour, an amount CUPE BC president Paul Faoro says is far below the local industry standard.
“Sixteen dollars and fifty cents for people who are keeping this city safe. No one in this province would think that’s a fair wage for jail guards,” he said at today’s rally.
Among the worst paid
According to CUPE, jail guards in many B.C. cities make significantly more than their Kelowna counterparts.
“When I hear $25 (an hour) in Chilliwack, 27 in Nanaimo, 30 in Prince George, $25 an hour just down the road in Penticton… You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out there is something wrong,” Faoro said.
CUPE has argued that jail guards provide an essential public service in Kelowna, and that Commissionaires is trying to pay them as little as possible by hiding behind the fact that is it technically a private-sector employer.
“They (Commissionaires) are claiming that they’re not a public sector employer. I say, excuse me, you have employees working down the road at a public building, being paid for by public tax dollars. It certainly looks to me that you’re a public sector employer. Sixteen-fifty doesn’t cut it, Commissionaires,” Faoro said.
Image: Trevor Nichols
Kelowna jail guard Lynda Davy, who took part in the rally, said “Commissionaires are not treating us fair.”
A ‘mischaracterization’?
Commissionaires spokesperson Julie Powers points out that Commissioners is a private sector employer, and because of that has a much different set of factors influencing its wages.
Comparing what it pays to the actual public sector is “a way of mischaracterizing how we see our employees,” she said.
“We’re a not-for-profit company with a volunteer board that’s not compensated for any of its contributions. We’re competitive in the industry that we operate in … and (any of our profits) are shared with all of our employees,” she added.
Powers also said Commissioners has offered “very reasonable” wage increases to CUPE on three separate occasions, and the union has rejected all of them.
She wouldn’t say how much the increases were for, but said the company is “so confident” in how reasonable its offers were, it’s ready to enter into third-party negations at any time.
City on the sidelines
Because it is ultimately Kelowna taxpayers who foot the bill for the jail guards, CUPE has also called on the city to get involved in the negotiation.
At today’s rally, both Mossman and Faoro specifically called on mayor Colin Basran to weigh in. In the past, Mossman has even suggested the city change its contract with Commissionaires to require higher wages for its guards.
Last month, the City of Kelowna’s Stuart Leatherdale told Okanagan Edge the city has no intention of doing that.
“The whole purpose of a collective bargaining arrangement … is so that they arrive at a fair wage. I think that process works well … and there’s labour laws set up to govern collective bargaining to help make sure it’s a balance of power, and they can arrive at good wage settlements,” he said.
“I don’t think we need to add language to intervene in a fair, collective bargaining process.”
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