Sudbury!
It is official, the Sudbury City Council has decided to move forward with option 2 in bringing the Living-Wage to Sudbury.
Councillors Mcintosh and Jakubo tabled the motion earlier this year and it is with great excitement we congratulate the City of Sudbury for choosing to stand by workers and helping to alleviate poverty for many people living in Sudbury.
However, the choices in option two are restrictive as they exclude Students in addition to making no mention of an annual increase!
This means students who are employed by the city are subject to lower pay rates than their full-time and part-time colleagues. Students are largely employed during the summer and winter months for short-term or contract job opportunities.
In addition, the lack of an annual increase allows the city to fall back on their promise to help workers truly continue to alleviate poverty measures.
Although, we are delighted to see the influence implied on local unions to become living-wage employers themselves. This is a great implementation that helps to support union workers.
Read the report here and option 2 below:
Option 2 Next Steps:
Staff would prepare a memorandum of agreement with CUPE 4705 to move all direct employees (excluding students) earning less than $16.98 to $16.98 effective July 1, 2022. Staff would prepare a set of proposals for collective bargaining which would include additional options for living wage implementation when preparing a bargaining mandate for collective agreement negotiations with CUPE 4705 and its locals in January 2023. Staff would not initiate the process of making application for certification as a living wage employer (i.e. by completing the initial contact form). The cost of this option is $434,000 with less inflationary risk.