Editor: Re: New model provides no guarantees, Murphy's Law, Aug. 12
Ted Murphy is correct. Delta staff negotiating with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) may be better than senior government doing it for us; but who will negotiate for Delta's taxpayers who must pay CUPE's wages?
Delta's operating budgets have grown a cumulative total of 26 per cent since 2006. Over the same period Delta's CUPE contract required pay rates to increase 19 per cent. The discrepancy suggests there may have been disproportionately higher increases in non-CUPE costs, or Delta hired more workers, or promoted some.
In very stark contrast, B.C. Statistics reports a cumulative five per cent increase in the annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) for British Columbia from 2006 through 2010.
The 2011 change is not yet known, but if the average since 2006 were assumed, the total increase through 2011 would be under seven per cent.
The Guest Editorial by Niels Veldhuis and Peter Cowley of the Fraser Institute reports regarding the past four years: "...consumer prices have increased faster than the income of average B.C. families."
Less than seven per cent vs. 19 per cent, ignoring how it got to 26 per cent.
It appears Delta's CUPE workers did very much better than those who paid their wages.
One may reasonably fear that whomever negotiates with CUPE workers on behalf of Delta's taxpayers is between "a rock and a soft spot." CUPE has big clout and it gets big increases. Taxpayer clout, it seems, is between nil and none; all they get is the tax bill.
If ever a dire situation cried out for a level playing field, this is it!
Ed Ries
