Landfill Workers in Allardville, New Brunswick Continue to Demand Acceptable Collective Agreement
Red Pine Landfill workers' picket March 18,
2020, before taking picket line down to comply
with COVID-19 health guidelines.
In its press release dated May 4, the Canadian
Union of
Public Employees (CUPE) informs that beginning
May 13, the 23 workers
of the Red Pine Landfill will be entering into
their fourth month of a
lockout imposed by their employer, the Red Pine
Solid Waste Facility in
Allardville, New Brunswick. The Facility is
operated by the Chaleur
Regional Service Commission (CRSC), which is
mainly comprised of mayors
from the municipalities that make up the Chaleur
region in northern New
Brunswick.
There is still no end in sight to the lockout,
the press
release states, as the CRSC refuses to
back off from its unacceptable power grab that
denies sick leave
by demanding that the workers get a doctor's
note for the very first
day they call in sick. According to the workers,
this significantly
increases the
number of employees who are working while sick.
Those employed at the
landfill and their union, CUPE Local 4193, have
repeatedly requested
that the Commission put an end to the lockout
during the pandemic and
allow the workers back in so that good faith
bargaining can begin so
that the issue is settled. However they have
faced blunt
refusal. To its shame, the Commission is
actually taking
advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic and the state
of emergency decreed
by the New Brunswick government on March 19,
that has been renewed
twice since. Following the provincial
government's March 19 emergency
pandemic directive, the Allardville landfill
workers took down
their picket in compliance with the order that
prevents them from
congregating during the pandemic crisis. This
was interpreted by the
CRSC as a blank cheque to openly hire more scabs
to replace the
locked-out workers, who further point out that
the employer is using
family members and posting student positions for
work that belongs
to union
members.
At this time, besides the injustice committed
against
them, the landfill workers are also pointing to
potential disasters to
the environment that the lockout may cause.
"Spring is coming, the ground is thawing, and
the
landfill is now an environmental time bomb,"
said CUPE Local 4193
President Serge Plourde, in a press release
dated May 5.
Among the locked-out employees is an
environmental
technologist who is seriously concerned about
the situation. "Are water
treatment testing practices regularly and
meticulously performed by
competent and experienced personnel who are
familiar with the reality
of the landfill site? "asks Yvon Richard, the
technologist at the plant.
"It's only a matter of time, in the event of a
failure
to test, a very rainy spring, to see
contaminated spills in the
Nepisiguit River," Richard adds.
In the face of this unacceptable situation,
CUPE is
renewing its call to all its organizations
and locals across the
country to help the CUPE 4193 workers in their
pursuit of an immediate
end to the lockout and the signing of a
collective agreement that they
deem acceptable, by sending letters of support
and financial
contributions to them.
In visiting the President of CUPE 4193's
facebook page, one can
see the large number of CUPE organizations and
locals from across the
country that are contributing financial support
to the locked-out
workers. Other unions are also providing
financial assistance to these
workers, such as the New Brunswick Nurses Union
and the Eastern
Provinces Council of the United Food and
Commercial Workers.
Financial support can be sent to CUPE Local
4193, to the
attention of Serge Plourde, President, 4246 Road
134, Allardville, New
Brunswick, E8L 1H2.
This article was published in
Number 35 - May 19, 2020
Article Link:
Landfill Workers in Allardville, New Brunswick Continue to Demand Acceptable Collective Agreement
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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