[LabComm] PRESS RELEASE: September 17 re: CUPE vows to fight raises for top managers

[Harprit Khaira]

CUPE Communique

September 17, 2003


CUPE vows to fight raises for top managers

KAMLOOPS, B.C. - School trustees should be ashamed of themselves for
proposing big raises for top administrators while cutting services to
students, says the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

“School board workers will not sit idly by and watch senior administrators
get fat while everyone else tightens their belts,” said John Hall, secretary
for CUPE Local 3500.  “We are going to fight this all the way.”

Four months ago, the School District 73 Board of Trustees made massive cuts
to balance the budget. 101 workers were cut and class sizes have increased
dramatically. Five elementary schools have been closed or annexed and two
high schools merged.  Workloads went up for all the employee groups
suffering layoffs, but salaries did not.

Now, trustees want to raise the salaries of the school Superintendent,
Directors of Education and confidential secretaries.  They will propose the
raise at the board meeting on September 22 in Barriere.

Under the proposal the school Superintendent’s salary would go to $121,000 a
year from $115,000, a 4.5 percent increase. Education Directors would go to
$102,000 a year from $94.000, an 8.5 per cent hike.  The wage proposals will
need to be approved by the BC Public Employers’ Association.

“These pay hikes are just not on,” Hall said.  “When funding is down because
enrolment is declining, why do administrators already making a big salary
need to get paid more?” Hall noted that this is a time of tight budgets.
Class sizes are increasing, services to students are being eliminated and
other employees are forced to do more with less.

He urged parents and residents to contact the school board and speak out
before the Monday meeting.

“Trustees need to get their priorities straight and cancel these pay hikes,”
Hall said. “Massive cuts to services in June to balance the budget and a
surplus in September for salary increases is not going to sit well with
workers or parents.”

Local 3500 represents about 673 custodial, clerical and support staff in
Kamloops/Thompson schools.
-30-

Contact:  John Hall, Local 3500, 250-377-8446

opeiu491
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