Friday, July 17, 2009

Windsor CUPE Workers Reject Contract Offer

I have been saying for some weeks now, including my post of yesterday, that CUPE workers in the City of Windsor have been taking a real beating from our friendly news folks over at the Windsor Star. The orchestration of these attacks has been, in my view, so blatant, one would think Windsor Star management is part of the Windsor City Council. CUPE workers had no real way of fighting back until yesterday. I, along with many others, underestimated their deep-seated anger.

Yesterday, I said CUPE would accept the City offer by a vote of 64%. I ran into a couple of my readers while grocery shopping in Amherstburg yesterday afternoon, who thought my number was very low. My reply was "64% may be a bit high." Well, obviously the no vote carried the day, and the contract offer went down in flames.

There were some odd things about the vote, though. No real count was made public, and nearly 700 of the almost 1800 strikers did not bother to vote.

The big question this morning: where do we go from here? If CUPE will not accept signing bonuses, more than 6% in wage increases over 4 years, pension and holiday protection for the time on strike, and more, then what is their bottom line?

The answer to that question is easy: CUPE workers want to overturn the obviously successful Windsor Star campaign, to polarize and vilify. Unfortunately for the Windsor Essex region, this is not the first time the Windsor Star and its management have overplayed their cards to the detriment of our community. A lot of unnecessary poison has been created.