The LFA membership passed two living wage motions at the May 10 Annual General Meeting, one proposed by the LFA Board and one proposed by the LFA Human Rights and International Solidarity Committee (HRISC) in support of the Justice for Janitors campaign. The text of the approved motions is copied below. The Board will keep members posted on any updates.
Motion 1: Proposed by the LFA Board and approved by the membership with one abstention:
BECAUSE all workers on our campus deserve a living wage; and
BECAUSE there is an established Living Wage for Families Campaign in British Columbia with over 100 Living Wage Employers who are addressing poverty; and
BECAUSE certified Living Wage Employers include the BC Federation of Labour, CUPE BC, the BCTF, and other unions, in addition to the United Way Lower Mainland; and
BECAUSE certified Living Wage Employers do not include ANY BC postsecondary institutions or faculty unions; and
BECAUSE as union members what we want for ourselves, we want for all
The LFA will:
- Become a certified Living Wage Employer
- Lobby Langara College to become certified Living Wage Employer
Motion 2: Proposed by the LFA HRISC and approved by the membership with two abstentions:
BECAUSE Langara College is using a cleaning contractor, Best Service Pros, that pays poverty wages; and
BECAUSE the current contractos denied its employees the right to freely choose a union by pre-emptively recongnizing the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC), a union which is widely considered to be a management union and which, for that reason, is debarred from affiliating to the BC Federation of Labour and the Canadian Labour Congress; and
BECAUSE Best Service Pros has fired union activists, and is the subject of over 50 complaints of unfair labour practices at the BC Labour Relations Board,
The LFA will request a meeting with the College administration to propose that Langara enact policies that:
- Require new contractors to hire employees of the previous contractor, maintain or improve their wages and benefits, and accept any freely negotiated collected agreements, and
- Require Langara College to engage only in contracts that obey labour laws and respect workers' rights to freely choose a union and to bargain collectively.