March 2024 General Meeting (PDF)

CUPE BC Delegate elections will now be held at the In-Person March 9th, General Meeting.

Attention New Members:

If you have not been initiated, please contact the office and book a time before or after your shift.

 

Happy New Year CUPE 561 members!

I hope everyone had a nice holiday season, and had a chance to spend time with family and friends, as well as getting some much needed rest. 2023 was a challenging year, not just for us 561 members but for our fellow friends and neighbours across the globe. I am confident that we will all support each other as well as our friends and neighbours in our time of need, and be open to understanding the ideas, beliefs, and opinions of our amazing and widely diverse group. Our long four month Transit strike is just one example of how our CUPE team rally in support of our members in their time of need. This amazing support ensured a big win in improving wages and working conditions, as well as pension plan so these members can plan for retirement knowing there will be funds they can rely on to help with a feeling of security as they enter this stage of their lives. I thank our 561 members and our larger CUPE family for your ongoing support! We truly have a great team.

We are currently in negotiations with our Library unit, and this round of negotiations has proven to be very challenging. We are approaching three years without a new contract so we will be focusing on these negotiations and this will be our top priority moving into 2024. I’m again confident that our CUPE team will be there in support of these members as well if needed, but I remain optimistic that we will get a deal for these members that they deserve, sooner than later.

Finally, our Executive continues to work on our local bylaws to bring them more in line with our CUPE National constitution, and we very much appreciate our members voting in favour of these important progressive changes to our bylaws! There will be more changes coming. Thank you!

Let’s make 2024 the best year ever for our Local and for our families. We deserve it!!

In Solidarity,

Randy Kootte

President

 

 

CUPE 561 acknowledges that our province of British Columbia is located on the homelands of 203 distinct Indigenous Nations and cultures; with over 30 different languages and close to 60 unique dialects spoken in the province. We ask all of our members to reflect, acknowledge and honour in their own way the First Nations land on which they live work and play.

We respectfully acknowledge the traditional and unceded territory of the following Nations; Coast Salish,  kʷikʷəƛ̓əmᓪ(Kwikwetklem) , Stó:lo, sə̓lílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh),  Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), q̓ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), Métis, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), the Semá:th and Mathxwí  and Inuit First Nations, in which our Local is able to operate. We recognize, honour and respect the presence of Indigenous people, past, present and future.