Month: December 2022

Lethbridge – CUPE Local 70 delivered $2400 worth of gift cards to organizations in need today, including the Lethbridge Food Bank, Interfaith Food Bank, Lethbridge Soup Kitchen, Salvation Army and Angel Tree Initiative.

“We work in this community, and our members care deeply about folks in the Lethbridge area, that’s why we chose to give back to the most vulnerable in our community this holiday season”, explained, Andrew Chernevych, a spokesperson for CUPE Local 70, which represents municipal workers in the Lethbridge Area.

“We know that more and more people are struggling this year and that inflation for basic necessities like groceries have left families and community members making tough decisions” added Chernevych

“Our Local has a history of taking care of our members and our community and it was no surprise that our members voted to support these organizations. We love the Lethbridge area and want to give back whenever we can.”, added Chernevych.

“We’re happy we could play a small part in helping these organizations support our community,” concluded Chernevych

Test of convention document link

Calgary social services agency fires employee for refusing to work alone with high-risk clients

CALGARY – Trinity Place Foundation has fired a 33-year-old female employee after she told her employer she wasn’t comfortable working alone with 30 high-risk clients. The foundation primarily serves Calgary seniors with housing needs, but also works with Alberta Health Services to provide housing and social services to vulnerable populations including clients with severe mental health issues.

In August, a client at Parkview Village claimed to have been sexually assaulted by another client. At that point, employee Kim Sinnett asked Trinity Place to fill a vacancy at the site. Sinnett worked with 30 high risk clients and 100 other residents and was the only staff person on site while the other position remained vacant.

Sinnett was concerned that all clients had access to her in her office (with no emergency exit), no access to a cell phone when working out of her office, and no emergency or safety plan. After multiple attempts to get Trinity Place to address the safety issues and fill the vacant position, Sinnett contacted the union (CUPE) and asked for help. Sinnett and a CUPE representative met with her manager on December 1^st to address the safety issues and ask for a safety plan. Two working days later, Sinnett was given a dismissal letter for ‘falsifying her social work credentials’ in her application for employment.

Sinnett, who has a degree in Community Rehabilitation and a Disability Studies diploma, never claimed to be a social worker, did not provide a social worker license number, and correctly listed her educational credentials on her application.

Being dismissed without cause just before Christmas means Sinnett will receive no severance and is not eligible for Employment Insurance.

“I’m heartbroken,” said Sinnett. “I love my work, I want to keep doing it. I am worried about the clients I worked with. I shouldn’t be fired for wanting a safe workplace.”  CUPE Alberta President Rory Gill said agencies like Trinity Place should treat their workers better.

“Everyone has the right to be safe in their worksite,” said Gill. “One person with 30 high risk clients isn’t a safe situation.”

“Trinity Place’s trumped-up excuses for firing this employee are nonsense. They need to do the right thing and give her back her job.”

CUPE will be filing an occupational health and safety complaint and is considering a further complaint to the Alberta Labour Relations Board for anti-union activity.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) filed a legal challenge against Alberta legislation they say is designed to tie unions in red tape and limit their freedom to exist.

CUPE Alberta President Rory Gill, one of the plaintiffs in the case, says changes to labour laws passed by the United Conservative Party were ‘a kind of low-level union busting you might see in the southern US or a Central American dictatorship.’

Specifically, CUPE is challenging the provisions of Bill 32, Restoring Balance in Alberta’s Workplaces Act, (2020). The bill mandates that unions operating in Alberta must:

• Classify all spending as being ‘core’ or ‘non-core’ activities,
• Collect written consent from all dues-payers on an annual basis to deduct dues for all ‘non-core’ activities, and
• Instruct employers to not collect the portion of dues allocated for ‘non-core’ activities for any dues payers who have not provided consent to pay.

“The UCP want unions to spend all our time collecting signatures from every dues payer,” said Gill. “Time spent in this exercise is time not bargaining better wages and working conditions, and time not defending members. And in the UCP’s eyes, that’s a good thing.”

Gill says CUPE and other unions operate in a fully democratic manner and pointed out that the government doesn’t practice what it preaches.

“I’d like to not pay taxes for the so-called war room, or the $7 billion wasted on the failed Keystone pipeline, but the UCP doesn’t give anyone the option to opt out of those projects.”

CUPE’s Statement of Claim, filed today at the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta, charges that the legislation contains restrictions on the freedom of association and freedom of speech of CUPE and other unions.

Gill says the legislation is an attempt to stop CUPE from taking public positions on Alberta issues like health care, education funding or job creation.

“Every CUPE local has monthly meetings that any member can attend and ask questions, move motions, and vote on the spending and actions and positions of their union. We are very democratic. But the UCP doesn’t like the political direction CUPE has been given by our members in open votes. So they are trying to use legislation to shut us up.”

CUPE’s submissions note that there are no similar restrictions on union activities in any other province or the federal sector.

“This law blatantly tries to gag expression, it’s an attempt to stop workers from democratically governing themselves. It’s unconstitutional and we intend to prove that in court.