The BC Labour Relations Board today declared four CUPE strike votes invalid. The strike votes involved support staff employees of School District No. 19 (Revelstoke), School District No. 53 (Okanagan Similkameen), School District No. 67 (Okanagan Skaha) and School District No. 83 (North Okanagan-Shuswap). The Labour Relations Board held that the CUPE Local 523 had failed to meet the requirements of section 59(1) of the Labour Relations Code. That section stipulates that parties must exchange all their proposals and discuss their respective positions on each other’s proposals before a strike vote can be taken. As a result of the LRB decision, CUPE 523 will not be able to legally participate in the school board strikes that CUPE’s Sectoral Bargaining Committee has scheduled to begin Monday, March 27, 2000.
The four school boards, the Okanagan Labour Relations Council and the BC Public School Employers’ Association were represented by Harris & Company counsel.
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