Walkout by CBRM workers ends following labour board ruling to return to jobs

An illegal walkout by Cape Breton Regional Municipality's outside workers has ended following a back-to-work ruling from the Nova Scotia Labour Board.

Members of CUPE Local 759, who provide transit and garbage services among other things, stopped work on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The stoppage appeared poised to head into a third day, but late Wednesday CBRM Mayor Amanda McDougall posted a brief labour board ruling on her Facebook page.

In it, the board ordered the employees back to work.

That post was followed soon afterwards by another from the municipality announcing that all Transit Cape Breton routes, with one exception, had resumed services as of 5 p.m. 

CUPE confirmed to CBC the workers were returning to their positions.

Members upset over placement of another unionized worker 

The union said its members were upset over CBRM's accommodation of a member of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union, which represents workers in the Cape Breton Regional Police Service.

Local 759 president Kevin Ivey said the NSGEU employee was placed into a CUPE position without any consultation and over the heads of some CUPE members who could have applied for the job.

Before the walkout ended, union executives said they didn't endorse the action, but called it a message from the workers to management and the union.

"The members are frustrated and they're speaking to both of us that they're frustrated with the relationship," said CUPE Nova Scotia president Nan McFadgen earlier Wednesday. "They want us to work together."

Grievances filed by both sides

The union is listening, she said.

"The local sits at the table. They're ready with an alternative solution to the problem that we're currently faced with and CBRM will hear nothing about it."

The union has filed a grievance over the placement, which CBRM says is an accommodation for that employee, and CBRM has filed a grievance over the union members' walkout.

Both sides met on Wednesday, but the union said no decisions were made.

No one from CBRM was available for comment Wednesday before the mayor and then municipality posted on Facebook.

Earlier Wednesday, CUPE national representative Kathy MacLeod said CBRM had consulted the union in the past whenever an accommodation was needed for an employee, but that didn't happen this time.

"This is nothing against the individual personally," she said. "It's just the failure of this employer ... to sit with the union, when they have done it in the past many times before."

McFadgen said management can place a member from one union into a position normally covered by another union as an accommodation, but it has to talk to the union about it.

"The employer does not in fact have the right to just say, 'Oh, by the way, this is happening,' because that's what collective agreements are for."

On Tuesday, CBRM suspended the employees who walked off the job for one day, but the union said it was not been notified of any other disciplinary measures.

The transit stoppage has hit Cape Breton University students hard.

Transit stoppage a major inconvenience

Raman Singh of India, who has been at CBU for two months and works part-time at the Mayflower Mall near the university, said the lack of bus service was a major inconvenience.

"It's difficult for me to commute to my job and for my classes," he said, standing alone at a bus stop waiting for a ride to pick him up on Wednesday. "It's really hard. I did have [to take] a taxi yesterday. It's too expensive. To Mayflower Mall it's like $12."

CBU students union president Sahilpreet Singh said it was a "total shock" when the walkout continued on Wednesday.

"Students are not feeling good about it, because it's not only the students who come here for the classes," he said.

"They come here to study, too, right. They come here to use the library, too. They come here to use the resources, too, which they are not able to access right now."

The work stoppage also affected CBRM's Handi-Trans service, which provides buses for people who cannot use the regular system, and garbage and recycling collection and disposal, as well as all of the other services provided by the local.

CUPE 759 has another year left on its contract representing about 300 municipal employees in transit, public works, water and wastewater management, parks and grounds maintenance, building and arena maintenance, and cleaning and janitorial services.