CUPE retracts grievance but still "extremely upset"

There was a news story in the Ottawa Sun yesterday about how CUPE, the union representing municipal workers in Scugog, Ontario, had filed a grievance against a city councillor who bravely took the initiative and lowered the town flag after a Canadian soldier's death had been nationally reported.

The issue? The dastardly act was done on a Saturday and should have been done by a unionized employee. The union insisted yesterday that the grievance was "not about the money" (isn't it always about the money?) even though a unionized worker would be entitled to $120.00 in overtime pay for a job that takes about three minutes.

So after a national outcry the union has decided to stand down and try to work its way out of a major public relations mess. According to today's Ottawa Sun, the chair of the CUPE local is "extremely upset by the spin" that portrayed the grievance as a lack of respect and called it a misunderstanding over a labour relations issue.

And she has the gall to be upset over "spin"?! What, pray tell, is she trying to do now?

The bottom line is that the union and the town negotiated a bargaining agreement that had only sketchy details outlining the requirements and procedures should the town flag need to be lowered on a weekend or holiday. They likely saw this simple act as a perfect opportunity to pounce and embarrass municipal officials and use this as some future negotiation chip.

Well guess what - it blew up in their faces and rightly so. Management and union officials will apparently meet today to work out some new procedure. If Scugog could legally get away with it, I wish they'd tell CUPE to get the heck out of the office and stick their demands where the sun doesn't shine. I was personally outraged yesterday to hear that not only would a worker be entitled to $120 in overtime pay for lowering the flag (the councillor stated that it took but a few minutes to do it), but that CUPE would try to make a national story out of it and then be outraged when a less than favourable public opinion formed after the news cross the nation.

When is enough enough, CUPE?