The union that represents the city’s public works employees is accusing Coun. Cam MacKay of “trashing” the union during a recent council presentation but MacKay countered the union is dragging him into its own turf war.
MacKay made a presentation to council last week requesting that the city obtain price quotes from private contractors to buy the city’s new garbage trucks and take over trash collection. The city is purchasing five new automated trucks as it readies to take over waste collection in June. With the new program, the city will use its own public works employees to perform 100 per cent of residential garbage pickup and hire a contractor for the pickup of household organic waste.
MacKay’s presentation was “needlessly and recklessly antagonistic toward city staff and their union,” said the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in a press release Monday.
The press release accuses MacKay of saying that St. Albert waste collectors are the highest paid in the province when in reality they are among the middle and earn less than waste collectors in Edmonton.
“By trashing CUPE and our members in a public forum, he is trying to make us into a villain for his own political purposes,” said local CUPE president David Graham in the release.
MacKay responded with a press release of his own Tuesday, stating CUPE’s release was “overly provocative” and misrepresents his position on garbage collection, which is to seek private sector quotes to ensure taxpayers are getting the best deal available.
The union local represents 118 full-time public works employees, Graham said. He said he watched the meeting on TV while other CUPE members watched from the public gallery.
A review of a recording of the meeting revealed one direct reference to CUPE in MacKay’s presentation. It comes as he refutes a concern of city administrators that pursuing privatization could harm the city’s relationship with the union.
“I know that CUPE understands the nature of government very well and they understand that policies change,” MacKay said. “There would be no repercussions [if we privatized] as CUPE surely has much more important, bigger fish to fry than garbage collection in St. Albert.”
MacKay said several times that St. Albert pays above average wages, citing the city’s policy of paying at the 60th percentile. He also cited a report from last fall that showed the city pays more than the 60th percentile for some jobs. This policy only applies to non-unionized employees, and not union contracts that are collectively bargained.
“The way it came across to us is that he indicated that we’re the highest paid, some of the highest paid,” said Graham in an interview. He conceded that he’s concerned about layoffs.
“It could mean jobs,” he said. “We’re opposed to privatization of public sector work.”
The city is hiring one new public works employee as the city prepares to take on all garbage collection, which is currently split between the city and a private contractor.
In a later interview, MacKay said he hasn’t compared the actual wages of St. Albert’s waste collectors with other such workers. He also said that the two largest private contractors in the region both use unionized workers, so regardless of the city’s direction, trash collection will be done by unionized workers.
“This is really just a turf war over who gets the [employee] in their union,” MacKay said. “What matters is that the resident gets the best price and the best service.”
