Vancouver Library Workers Fight for Pay Equity amid Wider Civic Strike

Vancouver is in the midst of a widespread strike of civic workers. CUPE Locals 15 (inside workers), 1004 (outside workers) and 391 (library workers) have been on strike for approximately four weeks, since talks broke down and the City bosses walked away from the table. Some talks were scheduled with Local 15 on July 27th and 28th, but to no avail – the bosses again refused to bargain. Indeed, in the course of two days “bargaining”, the city negotiators spent a total of about two hours at the table. Further talks are apparently scheduled for the outside workers and library workers, but if history is any kind of indication, the outlook is rather dim.

For the library workers in Local 391, this is their very first job action. According to the library workers, they have traditionally had a decent relationship with their employer. Though this is debateable, depending on the particular worker you speak with, the fact is that library workers are suffering from an acute disparity in terms of wages. The current regime headed by Sam Sullivan and his NPA cronies on City Council, and the Greater Vancouver Regional District Labour Relations Board, are pushing the contradictions these workers face to the top of the agenda. The city’s unwillingness to bargain, coupled with their flagrant hypocrisy around wages and benefits and painfully transparent spin leads us to believe that this will be a very long strike.

A key issue for the library workers is one of gender/sex discrimination and pay equity. As library work is traditionally viewed as a female occupation by the workers themselves and society at large, the issue of pay equity has become a focal point for their struggle. In brief, the library workers are low paid workers by comparison to other occupations within the spectrum of CUPE certified civic employees, in traditionally male occupations; as well, other library workers in the city and across the country are better paid than our local public library workers (for more information, visit cupe391.ca). Essentially they have not seen the benefits of pay equity adjustments that benefited other workers in public sector employment, federally and provincially. Nor has CUPE been willing to champion this issue for these workers up till now, even though such pay equity settlements have been around since at least 1999 (Public Service Alliance of Canada settlement, specifically) (www.psac.com).

Pay equity increases are an uphill battle to this day. Indeed it took the PSAC sixteen years to win equal pay for equal work for workers with the federal government. Despite its importance as an issue of social justice, pay equity is an issue which is continually diluted through bureaucratic responses. Indeed, CUPE Local 23, which represents the inside and library workers in Burnaby, has secured language in their recently ratified contract which will most likely serve as a template for the Vancouver library workers. The actual contract is not available online, but CUPE’s www.fairnessforcivicworkers.ca website gives us some idea of what the mechanism to address pay equity will look like. We quote here in full from that website:

While it may be, to some, unreasonable to expect immediate increases for workers whose wages are demonstrably below par; a mechanism for job evaluation can serve as a tool to judge the extent of inequity for equal work. This is what the Burnaby workers have voted for, and is what the Vancouver workers can expect. There are problems, however, that undermine this mechanism and which make pay equity a hope rather than a reality. We must ask two questions. We can see that the union is representing the interests of the workers on the joint committee. What we would hope is that the union representative consists of workers themselves, rather than union negotiators.

The second concern regards the fulfilment of the results of the job evaluation process. We know that you can study all you like, but unless it is followed up with action the time spent is a waste. Reading the details provided above, from CUPE’s website www.fairnessforcivicworkers.ca, the reader is left wondering if the job evaluation plan is worth the paper it will be written upon. Specifically, the joint committee is made up of representatives from the union and the employer. What is of concern is highlighted by the qualification in the second sentence.

To the reader it seems as though the mechanism of evaluation itself, before we even get to a discovery of the extent of pay inequity, is subject to the approval of the joint committee.
Can the union leadership be trusted to ensure accurate classifications are used? Can the employer be trusted to agree to implement the evaluation mechanism once it has been developed?

Given the overwhelming response of the Burnaby workers in their vote on this contract, it is obvious that they have faith in their union’s ability to win essential victories around such fundamental issues as pay equity. We can assume that a similar resolution will be tabled for the Vancouver library workers to ratify. But is this a fair resolution for an issue such as pay equity? When an issue is tabled such as this one it is critical to remind ourselves that this is not merely an economic matter, it is fundamentally an issue of social justice and therefore is also an issue of political importance. The proof is in the so called pudding, and only an analysis of the actual language of the contract can provide accurate conclusions, but as the above quotes from the details of the settlement show, concrete results for the Burnaby workers in their struggle for pay equity is far from assured. Indeed, given that the contract itself has a five year term, should the bureaucrats from the city decide to drag out their ratification of the evaluation mechanism the Burnaby workers who are demanding pay equity could find themselves without any advances at all at the end of that 5 year period. Such a situation is obviously intolerable, and should a similar resolution be put before the Vancouver library workers they must question whether or not their interests are being dealt with honestly.

Certainly they have negotiated a schedule of increases earmarked from the overall payroll budget, but this is not a guarantee that those increases will be paid. If a process of evaluation does not involve the workers themselves, and if the job evaluation plan created by the union (workers) and employers is not binding in its actual implementation then what, concretely, has been achieved. The answer is obvious: nothing. This is a clear attempt to derail the struggle into a bureaucratic process that removes the workers themselves from the equation. Library workers in Vancouver should be on guard against a similar manoeuvre.

The Vancouver library workers have engaged with their current job action with enthusiasm. On day 1 of the job action over 500 workers turned out to sign up for picket duty. That is out of a total of about 700 workers in the public library system. As previously mentioned, this is the first ever job action for this local. Given the nature of what is at stake—pay equity and better conditions of employment for vulnerable workers such as auxiliaries—their enthusiasm shouldn’t come as a surprise. When workers feel empowered to confront issues that are important and affect them directly, that spirit reflects the power of the collective will of the working class. It is the responsibility of the union to ensure that the demands of these workers are met with concrete, binding, and decisive improvements. The employer cannot be counted on to provide this guarantee and to assume that they will proceed in good faith is naive. If the union does not enforce the will of the workers through language in their contract then not only will the demands of the workers not be met, the cause of pay equity and the belief of the workers in their union will be dangerously compromised. For these reasons the Vancouver library workers struggle is an important one for all of us.

Pay Equity Now!
Victory to the City Workers!