A group supporting parents and family members of children or adult children who are addicted or abusing drugs and alcohol, meets each Wednesday evening. It is facilitated by Cogi Smith, a registered social worker, who has worked as a counselor and therapist in the Kamloops community for the past 24 years.
Free Parent’s Support Group
February 17th, 2012Forestry Officer Report – February 2012
February 8th, 2012Last March I attended the Kamloops Community meeting put on by the BCGEU. They travelled the province from January through the summer canvassing communities, workers, industry and government trying to brainstorm ideas to save BC’s Forest industry and Ministry of Forest jobs. The campaign was named `BC Forests, Our Future’. More information can be found @ http://www.bcgeu.ca/campaigns_and_issues/forestry_cuts
OH&S Level 2 (Advanced) Training
February 8th, 2012In January I had the opportunity to participate in Occupational Health and Safety Part 2 (Advanced) BC FED course put at the CLC Winter School. Included additionally were classes in Prevention of Violence in the Workplace and Understanding and Preventing Stress. It is my intent to give a brief (or not) review of each course.
Kamloops Dodge Settlement!
July 8th, 2011The CEP and Kamloops Dodge have reached agreement on a first contract. The agreement is for 3 years and includes wage increases of 2.5% per year.
Negotiations have been ongoing for over a year and have gone to mediation twice.
Local 10B now represents 3 auto dealerships in town with Kamloops Dodge joining Smith Chevrolet Cadillac and Dearborn Ford. We urge our members and their families to support these dealers who are commited to providing their workers with fair wages and working conditions.
Kamloops Dodge Negotiation Update
May 10th, 2011The employer has been served with 72 hour strike notice. This allows the members to exercise their right to strike. We are still hoping for a settlement in the final hours but, management is still not recognizing the resolve of the membership. Some wage offers have been improved, but only because of the announced raise to the minimum wage. One category was raised to one cent above minimum wage! The negotiation has been going on for over a year now and the members are still strong. The employer requested a final offer vote supervised by the Labour Relations Board and the offer was turned down by a vote of 18 to 1. The proposed contract rolled back holidays and wages for some employees and contained disciplinary language that would have allowed firing for just about any reason.
Forestry Officer Report – April 2011
April 21st, 2011I have had several e-mails from BCGEU president Darryl Walker regarding the BC Forests-Our Future Campaign. Megan Scott, staff rep for the BCGEU, continues to work on putting together summaries from each of the dialogues and the ideas and comments gathered in all four dialogues to create a coherent report/ policy document which can be used to stimulate public debate and advocate for positive change in BC’s forest sector. I will forward you these documents as soon as they are completed.
The following is from a BCGEU Media release – Poll finds we can’t trust forest companies to harvest timber in a Read the rest of this entry »
Forestry Officer Report for March 2011
March 14th, 2011The ICEM reports the success of the Spanish trade unions averting a second 24 hour strike with reaching of agreement on March 2, 2011. Along with retro wage increase the unions succeeded in keeping sweeping flexibility changes out of the national agreement.
The BC Forest Industry has seen hundreds of facilities and thousands of jobs lost in the past 15 years.The BCGEU forestry campaign `BC Forests. Our Future’ has begun with community dialogue meetings having taken place in Read the rest of this entry »
Kamloops Dodge Contract Update
February 11th, 2011Contract talks with Kamloops Dodge have broken down. The members have voted 100% in favour of strike action. We have applied for mediation and will be meeting with the mediator on the 24th & 25th of Feb.
We have been in negotiations for over 10 months now and have reached an impasse. Our members are simply asking for what the other dealerships in our local have achieved.
This has turned into a nasty confrontational negotiation. Local 10B and our national reps have tried to build a respectful cooperative relationship with this employer but it has been very frustrating. The 25 members at this site are being pressured by a management board that controls 12 other auto dealerships and feels that it can do as it pleases in the name of profit while ignoring the needs and working conditions of it’s employees.
It gives us all great comfort to know that the membership of the CEP and local 10B in particular have faced down greater challenges than this in the past and will support our brothers and sisters in this fight as well.
Forest Products Sector Council Survey
February 10th, 2011The Forest Products Sector Council is conducting a major study on the current and future labour market needs of the Canadian forest products sector to ensure we have the skilled workers we need to meet our future demand and growth.
You can help by completing the online survey >>> Here!
Thanks …….JFM
