CUPE sets picket dates, seeks full scale strike, at Simon Fraser University
November 02, 2012 - 12:54 PM
VANCOUVER - Support workers at Simon Fraser University are ramping up job action as fall term exams loom.
Members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 3338, say a full scale walkout will occur next Wednesday at all three SFU campuses in Metro Vancouver.
The 1,000-member local has been staging escalating strikes at the university to back demands for a new contract and says pickets will go up at the Burnaby Mountain, Surrey and downtown Vancouver campuses.
A walkout that began Thursday at the Burnaby campus continued Friday and support workers at the Surrey campus are joining in, with pickets to remain up in both locations until around 4 p.m.
CUPE has also announced a full withdrawal of services on Saturday and Sunday at the university's Harbour Centre and Goldcorp Centre for the Arts in Vancouver to back demands after workers have been without a contract for two years.
The union accuses SFU of stalling negotiations even as CUPE locals at the University of B.C., University of Northern B.C., University of Victoria, Royal Roads and Thompson Rivers University have reached tentative deals.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2012