City employees received the following letter sometime in early June

City employees received the following letter sometime in early June. I have Xed out the dates as they are not the same for each employee. The red highlights are mine so that you can compare the comments with what BCTV News reported on Quesnel.

June 2004

“In accordance with the direction of Council, I am writing with respect to the illegal strike that you participated in XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 2004.

I am sure I do not have to remind you that you are expected to report for work, unless you have a justifiable reason for your absence. The City does not consider participating in an illegal strike to be a legitimate excuse for being absent from work. The Labour Relations Code is clear that unions and its employees are prohibited from striking during the term of a collective agreement. It is the City’s view that you and your fellow union members participated in a strike when you failed to report for work. Furthermore, the HEU was not in a legal strike situation as back to work legislation had been passed by April 30, 2004, and the HEU was back to work by May 3, 2004. Therefore, there was no legal picket line meaning that Article 13.05 of the Collective Agreement is not applicable and your failure to report for work was simply not justified.

Accordingly, the City is imposing discipline in the form of a written reprimand. I also want to be clear that the City will impose further discipline, up to and including dismissal if you fail to report for work in the future without a justifiable excuse.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to express my disappointment in the conduct of the Union and the employees with respect to the illegal strike, particularly in view of the job action earlier this year. You could have shown your support for the HEU members on your own time and without deliberately failing to report for work. The City prides itself on providing quality services to the public in an efficient manner. Obviously, we are not able to do so if our employees do not report for work. This only hurts the public’s perception of the City and its employees.

If you have any questions, please feel free to discuss these with your supervisor.

Yours truly

Bob Jaskela

A/City Manager”