I don’t know where you sit within those wage averages, but I know where I do

I had to do a bit of digging to find out the following information about recent BCGEU contracts negotiated with the provincial government.

For starters, here’s a reminder of what the BCGEU negotiated with the BC Liberals in 2006:

1. an average wage increase of 10 percent over four years
2. additional market and recruitment and retention pay for targeted classifications
3. AND a signing bonus of at least $4,019.40 for full-time employees (pro-rated for part-time employees)

The BCGEU also negotiated to have:

• improvements to health and welfare benefits
• improvements to premiums and allowances
• additional wage increases for positions that had led to recruitment and retention problems
• additional wage increases for workers the union & government agreed had been undervalued

The current two year agreement, which is now ending, was indeed for 0 and 0% wage increases … but again that was following what many would consider a very generous offer they had received in the 2006 contract.

Today the BCGEU members went out on a one day strike because … wait for it … they want more.  More than the 3.5% wage increase the government has offered for the coming 2 years.

IF this offer does eventually get accepted, this will mean that the average BCGEU member, for the time period of 2006 to 2014, will have received average wage increase of 13.5% … or 1.7% annually.  PLUS … don’t forget that $4,000 signing bonus.

Okay, I know this has been a bunch of number, but it is leading to something, and here it is:

... the average annual wage for workers in BC is $44,749

... the average salary for a BCGEU member is currently $62,252 per year

I don’t know where you sit within those wage averages, but I know where I do – and I think that BCGEU members are getting a good deal now, never mind an increase of 3.5%.

What are your thoughts?

I’m Alan Forseth in Kamloops, with the thoughts of one conservative.

What do you think? Would it be a good idea to increase the number of Sheriffs to have them take over some of the responsibility of traffic enforcement?

Did anyone else miss the following media release from last Thursday? I personally have to think that if we were to increase the number of BC Sheriffs, and tasked them with this duty, they actual could "... engage in traffic enforcement activities in order to modify behaviour and enhance safety ..."

I’m sure I’ll get flack on this; however I think that putting an RCMP, or city police, officer in a car with radar is a waste of resources.

Here’s the full media release from the Canadian Police Association:

Public safety, not "revenue-generating" should be focus of traffic enforcement

A proposal from the British Columbia Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU) to expand the BC Sheriffs' mandate to include traffic enforcement as a "revenue-generating" tool shows an unfortunate lack of understanding of the basic role of law enforcement, said British Columbia Police Association (BCPA) President Tom Stamatakis today.

"The simple fact is that Police Officers engage in traffic enforcement activities in order to modify behaviour and enhance safety; not to raise money for the government, and any suggestion otherwise by the BCGEU is misguided and frankly insulting to BC taxpayers," said Mr. Stamatakis.

The request for the outsourcing of police duties to inadequately trained employees of the provincial Sheriff's department comes as police officers in BC are already being diverted from their own regular policing duties towards the transfer of prisoners, and ensuring an adequate presence in the province's courtrooms, two key duties that the Sheriffs are currently mandated to perform.