File photo: Castanet
Kelowna Cabs has issued a lockout notice to its unionized dispatchers, escalating its labour dispute with the small group of workers.
MoveUp union says its members in Kelowna were issued a 72-hour notice to lockout on Tuesday as bargaining apparently fell apart. The notice will go into effect on Friday.
Representatives of the union and Kelowna Cabs tell Castanet both sides were at the negotiating table right up until the notice was issued.
The union says it is “standing up” to the company’s efforts to outsource local dispatcher jobs to an overseas call centre. There are currently five active members impacted by the lockout notice, according to the union. Pre-pandemic there were between 13 and 17 local dispatchers.
“There is no justification for this type of action beyond greed,” said Christy Slusarenko, MoveUP vice-president. “The people who know how to navigate around this community and understand the needs of the people in this community are the people who are from this community, not someone overseas who can’t even find Kelowna on a map.
“It’s particularly callous of Kelowna Cabs, in the middle of a pandemic, to decide that not only do they want to kill local jobs and local service but the best way for them to achieve this is to bully their workers into submission by locking them out of their work.”
The union says workers at Kelowna Cabs have been without a collective agreement since the previous one expired in May 2019.
“Our members have been very understanding and have done their part to help their employer navigate through the pandemic and other challenges to the industry. They just want to be treated with respect and to get a fair deal that preserves local jobs and preserves a higher standard of service for the community,” Slusarenko said.
A Kelowna Cabs spokesperson said he could not comment, pending a meeting scheduled for Wednesday with the dispatchers.
Last year the BC Labour Relations Board overturned eight layoff notices issued to Kelowna Cab’s dispatchers after determining the company “failed to bargain in good faith.” The company at that time was trying to move to an app-based dispatch system.
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