Dear CUPE 4879 Brothers and Sisters,

On behalf of the Negotiations committee and Executive we would like to thank the members who were able to come out to the ratification meetings in Vancouver, Williams Lake and Kamloops.  We appreciate your patience, support and time for those that were able to attend these very important meetings.

As a result of your participation, the memorandum of agreement as recommended by the mediator was voted 91% in favour of acceptance/ratification.  Complete details of the agreement will be posted on the CUPE list once we have confirmation that the Employers side has also ratified/accepted the mediator recommendations.

Again, to the membership, we appreciate your patience and feedback through the bargaining and voting process. We understand that not everyone could participate in the meetings over the last couple of days but we appreciate those that were able to do so and thank you to the others who had wanted to attend but were unable to.

Finally a big thank you to the Negotiations committee, Debbie Wasylyshyn, Debbie Blackwell, Karl Fultz, Evelyn Senger, Amit Goel and our National Rep Rick Alexander for your hard work and perseverance.  Bargaining can be a difficult and frustrating process. It seemed like it took a long time to reach the end of this round of collective bargaining but you all helped pull it through to a “not perfect agreement we will all agree” but to a satisfactory conclusion under the circumstances of the Government mandate and you should be proud… So on behalf of the membership well done and thank you!  Till the next round…

In solidarity,

Lois Rugg, President (for Debbie W, Debbie B, Karl, Evelyn, Amit, Lyn and Laszlo)

CUPE Local 4879