Whitby Shores Community Forums

Before anyone decides to flame me I will recognize that there are those who don't mind paying higher taxes and wages for municipalities and their workers. While I am in agreement that wages should periodically increase, I think the recent agreement with the town of Whitby and their workers isn't a fair one to the local rate payers.

Here is a summary of the agreement according to Newsdurhamregion.com,

WHITBY -- Council has ratified a four-year deal for 230 municipal employees.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees 53 (CUPE 53) had been without a contract for more than 10 months. The new deal includes retroactive pay increases of 3.25 per cent from the time the union's contract expired in April 2007 and pay increases twice a year of 1.25 to two per cent from 2008 to 2010. The contract expires March 31, 2011.

The contract includes increases in dental and vision care benefits. The union members will also get Family Day as a holiday.

You can read the full story here for all the facts, http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/whitby/article/93673. I'm interested in hearing other people's views other than my own of course. But pay increases twice a year, retroactive 3.25% increase, family day, is there anything that the union had forgotten to ask for?

They forgot to ask for your left kidney.... Brutal.

Jabber.

I think it's a fair deal. I think it's in line with other citys' workers, maybe even easier on the tax payer than other city worker deals. Whitby doesn't have much of a choice on the "Family Day" issue. Thank another level of government for that.

The regular increases is actually similar to contract with permanent teachers in Durham.  Maybe if the town would have negotiated the new contract before the old one expired, they wouldn't have been boned for such a high retroactive pay increase.

Why do cities, boards of education, and the like always wait until a contract has EXPIRED before starting negotiations? It makes no sense to me...

To be competetive in a world market it appears more private companies are going to shared benefit costs, defined contribution retirement plans, and less unions. I think it's a matter of time where unions and exceptional pension and benefit plans will only be in government. So as taxpayers with increases higher then our salery increases it will just be a matter of time when people speak up a little more.

There is a reason they hold off negotiating these contracts. A strike would save the employer money. If you didn't get paid for 2 months because you were on strike even if you got a 10% increase it'll be a long time before you get those 2 months pay back. Besides retroactive pay is better for us, the town got to hold on to the money all this time and pays the workers no interest on it.

Those increases seem in line with what I'd expect where I work and I'm in a small private company. If I didn't get resonable increases from time to time I'd be looking for another job.

As far as family day goes I'm not in a union so I got it the second the law passed, every union will be asking for it and will have it eventually, seems fair to me.

If you think that finding bright dedicated people to work for next to nothing is easy you're crazy.

Why is it so rich? They were without a contract for almost a year, which means (and I hope it's obvious), in terms of purchasing power they took a pay cut for a year. Is 3.25 % increase really so high? Do you want to work at a job where you basically have no rises for the next 3 years (3.25% is pretty close to inflation)? I know I don't. In fact I would leave my job if that was the deal offered to me.  And how much are they actually making? Before we all have a fit of jealousy, it would be nice to know what are the salaries to start with.

What exactly is unfair about their deal??

The pay increases are twice a year so for the better part of a year they are only getting about 2% and then another increase (1.25%) late in the year. That is not the same as over three percent each year.

Why should they not get Family Day - it's now a Statutory Holiday.

And what is so horrible that they got increased benefits?

For those that think this deal was too "rich" I'd like to know what you think they should have gotten? Less of a raise - below inflation?, No retroactive pay even though they worked without a contract for 10 months? Maybe they should have threatened to strike last March instead? No Family Day even though it's a holiday? What exactly?

I agree with Risky....maybe you should find out what their salaries are before your fit of jealousy.

It's time we stood up to government and asked them why they are giving themselves so much more than the man on the street who pays them gets from government. Corporate Canada is shutting all this down. I have worked for the same major corporation for almost 30 years and we have lost many of the items that I am paying for Townies to enjoy. Raises? what's that, most of us don't even get COLA these days. Instead of keeping up with the times, they simply keep raising our taxes through the stratosphere and smile as they get their pay/benefits/pension for life from our bottomless pockets.

Sound perfectly reasonable to me. In an office job, you'd expect at least a 4% pay increase per year. If they're getting only 2% twice a year, that's still less than most of us.