Charlottetown city hall employee group joined larger union for help with grievances, UPSE says

The Voluntary Association of Charlottetown Employees voted to join theP.E.I. Union of Public Sector Employees because it wanted outside help with three grievances.

That, according to UPSE president Karen Jackson, was the main factor 45 city office staff, supervisors, managers and administrative staff voted 81 per cent in favour of joining the union in June.

"I think there was some hirings that were probably questionable and that just kind of festered and the inability to get things resolved with the present system, the way it was," Jackson said.

"Just the feeling that they need to bring somebody else in just to bring us in as a union to represent them and dealing with these issues."

Jackson said until the union meets with city officials, details of the grievancescan't be discussed.

Meeting with city

Jackson said a labour relations officer with the union will be meeting with the city's chief administrative officer Peter Kelly and a city legal representative this week and nextto discuss the grievances.

Kelly is not represented by the union.

Jackson said the issues may take some time to be resolved if the city and UPSEcan't settle before going through an arbitration process.

CBC requested comment from the city and is awaiting a response.

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