For the last 5 or so weeks the CUPE workers have been on strike in Saskatoon. These are the employees that work at the University such as the janitors, food services, etc. They went on strike because they didn't like what the University was offering them. Keep in mind that these workers already are paid extremely well for the type of work they do. I tried to find an exact number but couldn't, but I've heard through the grapevine that these workers are making around $12-$15 per hour...and that includes those who just make pizza or run the till in the bookstore.
Now I don't know all the details but this is a rant and I'll focus on the aspects that I want. The University offered them a 17% increase in wages and benefits over 3 years. However, 6% of that raise is based on acceptable performance. In other words, if they get a poor performance review they won't get all of that 6%, although they still get the other 11% which works out to 3.67% per year. The union thought this was terrible because they did not think any of it should be based on performance. One of the union reps even said and I loosely quote "tying wage increase to performance is an archaic way of thinking!"
WHAT!! I have never heard such lazy words in my life. So basically, these workers just want to show up to work, do their job (they don't even have to do it well, just show up and pretend to work) and they want a 17% increase. Meanwhile, the rest of us who work for companies have basically all our wage increases tied to performance...if we don't perform they won't be giving us a raise and will probably fire us.
These CUPE workers are some of the laziest people I know of. All they have to do is actually do their job well and they will get their total wage increase. And besides, it's a union, so if they feel the performance review is unfair they can just grieve it and the union will have to prove why they got a low review. It's a perfect system and actually makes these CUPE workers care about their jobs, the university, and the students they are serving. Kudos to President Peter McKinnon for not backing down on that issue as I feel he strongly believes that these workers need to be doing an excellent job in serving the students.
So to any CUPE workers out there....GET BACK TO WORK AND STOP BEING LAZY!!!
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3 comments:
nice rant. I love the part about CUPE workers are the laziest, since I am a CUPE worker. But yes I have nothing to do with CUPE 1975. I hate strikes, cause I think people should be thankful they have a job, and extra thankful if they have benefits. I hope CUPE 59 never goes on strike. Ben
Good point. My rant is against CUPE 1975...not all CUPE workers.
And just to keep going on the rant...these workers are extremely selfish. The students are getting extremely poor service and none of the workers care. If they did they would cross the picket line and go to work. There is often no toilet paper in the bathroom, there is no place to buy food and a number of the teachers aren't teaching labs which makes the students suffer and not able to complete their course loads.
And one more thing...I know not all CUPE 1975 workers wanted to strike, but I'm ranting against the 85% of them that voted no to the latest agreement. I'm sure there are a number of CUPE workers (probably about 15%) that would like to get back to work.
I want to go on record and say that the Professors at the University took it upon themselves to keep the buildings, including the washrooms, reasonably clean.
Thank you to all those professors who cared enough about the students to go beyond your professor status and keep our University functioning.
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