Pickets close city facilities

By Dan Hilborn
Published Oct. 22, 2005


Pickets went up at Burnaby civic facilities on Friday morning, shutting down city hall, stopping garbage collection and closing community centres in support of the teachers' strike and protest against Bill 12.

"Our members are having a political protest," Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 23 president Rick Kotar said Friday morning. "This is in support of the teachers and against Bill 12 and any other ridiculous legislation that comes along to take workers' rights away."

Kotar said his members are particularly concerned about the possibility that the Liberal government will continue to use legislation to force contracts on unions in the future.

"This could be far-reaching and affect our own members and their ability to negotiate in a collective manner in the future," Kotar said. "While we do our best to respect laws, some court orders are as ridiculous as this bill itself."

Kotar said the current job action was expected to continue until 5 a.m. Saturday morning (today). While a majority of public services provided by the City of Burnaby were being disrupted, Kotar noted that a water crew was dispatched to fix a broken water main and qualified technicians were being allowed inside the ice arenas to ensure that safety regulations were being followed. The RCMP detachment, which has CUPE support staff, was also behind pickets but operations were continuing.