The mayor of Castlegar is questioning the motives of the leadership of the CUPE local.
City workers are on strike with job security and grievance handling the main sticking points.
In an open letter Lawrence Chernoff writes that he and council see no cause for concern regarding job security. As an example he says during the industry tax revolt in 2010 the city ensured no lay-offs despite a plus 40% hit to the budget.
Chernoff says the city is prepared to allow ten hours a month for taxpayer-paid grievance investigation and the union should pay for any extra. He says the union should deal with issues of real concern to their members rather than delaying and eventually withdrawing most grievances.
Chernoff suggests the union is abusing that process.
Here’s a link to the open letter from Mayor Chernoff http://www.castlegar.ca/pdfs/letter_mayor_nov_26_2014.pdf