Should the cash-strapped New Westminster school district, which owes almost $5 million to the province, be paying one-third of a local union boss’ salary?
CUPE Local 409 president Marcel Marsolais earned $64,173 for the period of June 2012 to July 2013, and the school district paid $20,363 of his salary. The practice started through a resolution of a grievance in 2009, Marsolais said.
“It’s part of the collective agreement. If you look at the language in the collective agreement: that no union officer will suffer any loss of pay seniority, benefits by being involved in the union and representing members, whether it be the president or anyone else,” said Marsolais, who worked as a carpenter for the district before he became the union leader.
The district has been dealing with hefty budget shortfalls and had to cut approximately 62 jobs – about eight per cent of its workforce – to balance this year’s budget.
The practice of augmenting pay for union leaders working on union business is standard in other districts, he said.
“In some locals … the employer actually appreciates the work that’s done and the assistance the union gives to the human resources in all areas. Basically, the employer pays 100 per cent of those wages,” he said.
But that’s not the case in the Burnaby school district, where CUPE Local 23 president Simon Challenger’s salary is paid entirely by the union.
But Challenger told The Record this year that it’s easier for his union to pay his salary because of its hefty size.
“We are a large union. We haven’t had a lot of cuts. The large unions obviously have more resources. We collect more union dues,” he said. “The reality is I could be billing the employer for time. We’ve just always had an agreement … always came to the agreement that the union, once we were able to get to the situation that we are, that we would take care it.”
He added, “But it is more unusual for us to be exactly how we are – where members take care of my complete wage and benefits.”
Union leaders are often streamlining the process by dealing with issues and concerns before they balloon into big problems for school districts, he said.
“So really we just try to assist in running an effective school district,” Challenger said. “In a lot of regards, we are helping with the human resources part of the employer.”
Trustee MaryAnn Mortenson didn’t want to comment on the matter because she is being “told” it’s a personnel issue. She did say the district would likely make a statement about the matter at some point.
Currently, four of the district’s seven school labour-endorsed trustees received CUPE contributions to the election campaigns. They are trustees Michael Ewen, James Janzen, David Phelan and Jonina Campbell.
