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BURNABY – The provincial Ministry of Transportation has announced it is once again moving ahead with plans for the Evergreen rapid transit line connecting Coquitlam to Vancouver via Port Moody and Burnaby. The Request for Qualifications (RFQ) announced this week calls for private partner applicants "capable of designing, building, and financing the project".

The RFQ states that the operation and maintenance of the new line will become part of the publicly-run SkyTrain system.

The multi-union bargaining committee met with the CSSEA/Employers throughout the month of June. These meetings failed to provide any substantive movement by either party.

STRONG CAMPAIGN - AJ Basaraba, CUPE BC president Barry O'Neill, Anti-contracting out committee member Carolae Donoghue, CUPE 608 president Patti Finch and Carol Sheridan posed after town hall meeting to keep the community centre public.

Mayor urged to stop waffling on community centre’s future

PENTICTON—With the arrival of hot summer weather beckoning local residents outdoors, Wednesday night’s town hall meeting on the future of the municipality’s community centre drew a crow

VICTORIA—The 15 CUPE members working at the United Way of Greater Victoria have ratified a three-year collective agreement. The deal includes 2.5 per cent wage increases in each of the three years.

PENTICTON — CUPE 608 members, municipal workers in Penticton, are hosting a Town Hall meeting on Wednesday, July 7 on the importance of public recreation services to the residents of Penticton.

“The Community Centre is a vital part of our community and we’ll be discussing how it will be operated in the future,” says CUPE 608 president Patti Finch.

BURNABY—CUPE locals in the CUPE Colleges Bargaining Council (CCBC) have served notice for local bargaining with their employers.

The council includes five CUPE locals that represent more than 2,000 staff at Camosun College (CUPE 2081), College of the Rockies (CUPE 2773), College of New Caledonia (CUPE 4951), North Island College (CUPE 3479) and Vancouver Island University (CUPE 1858).

Workers covered by these agreements provide important services at colleges and universities across the province, including maintenance, administrative support, custodial support, food services,

VANCOUVER — National Aboriginal Day events wrapped up in Oppenheimer Park on June 21 amid feasting and song. Events over four days honoured First Nations, Métis, and Inuit traditions and included a daily sunrise ceremony, traditional storytelling, activities for children, a neighbourhood smudge, and a daily feast.

CUPE BC alternate diversity vice president (Aboriginal) Debra Merrier brought greetings and stressed the importance of her union’s involvement in her community.

Shirley Carr was world’s first woman elected head of a national labour organization

Shirley Carr, a long-time activist and labour leader whose work has created a legacy of strength and pride in the Canadian labour movement, died on Thursday, June 24, at the age of 81, in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

CUPE National president Paul Moist this morning released the following statement on Sister Shirley’s passing:

Workers have lost a true friend with the passing of Sister Shirley Carr.

BURNABY— The Community Social Services bargaining committee tasked with negotiating a new collective agreement met with the employer group for four days last week. (June 21-24)

The committee’s work centered around trying to establish clarity on a variety of issues raised by the employer group and gaining new contract language.

The committee is working within the mandate members gave us: to restore previous conditions of employment.

Keep watching cupe.bc.ca for further updates.

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BURNABY—The BC government announcement that it is providing 106 new green school buses will be welcomed in school districts throughout B.C.

However, the June 25 announcement included a repeat of government’s desire to further study cost savings options such as bulk purchasing.

And while new buses will be more efficient, districts with higher-than-average transportation costs have faced years of underfunding as a result of a freeze in the supplementary transportation support