Sam Sullivan's inspiration for dealing with Vancouver's labour dispute in 2007.
“We have a very good working relationship with our union and we negotiate directly with them. And we’re going along quite well and we’ll be reaching an agreement very quickly.” – Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts just before settling her labour dispute
“The strike is a considerable regret. I don’t like to implicate anybody. These are all my own weaknesses, my own shortcomings. But I chose to not have any role in it – to leave a lot of room for our staff…” – Sam Sullivan in an interview with the Vancouver Sun conducted just days before relinquishing his right to the Mayor’s office
Looking at these two quotes, it is no wonder why Sam Sullivan was more than happy to let the Greater Vancouver Labour Relations Bureau do the heavy lifting in terms of negotiations, while Dianne Watts was ready and willing to end the labour dispute quickly and amicably.
So when I confronted former Sullivan Chief of Staff Daniel Fontaine this morning on CKNW about his spinning on the GVLRB and the supposed dire consequences of Vancouver pulling out of the organization, it was no wonder that I got the response that I did.
First, I have not got my technical department to put in an audio plug-in yet, so here is the link to the civic affairs panel this morning…it is an interesting listen.
At about the 40 minute mark of the broadcast, I pointed out that that Sam Sullivan self-admittedly knew the figures and the terms that it would have taken to end the strike early. I also talked about how the first agreements signed happened outside of the GVLRB negotiating process.
Daniel of course brushed this off to political spin, and continued to stick to the story that the City of Richmond’s agreement boxed in all the other municipalities, in spite of the fact that Sullivan’s awareness of a set of dispute-ending figures and terms existed long before Richmond’s agreement.
Richmond settled seamlessly. Surrey settled soon afterwards. And they negotiated outside of the GVLRB.
With Burnaby already given notice of its intent to pull out, and a government now in place in Vancouver that is willing to negotiate amicably, fairly and expediently with CUPE, the GVLRB ceased to be useful.
Bottom line? If you want to create conflict where none needs to exist, and then abandon responsibilty over the task at hand, Sam Sullivan et al. (including his most trusted advisors) are worthy of a case study in what not to do when attempting to maintain peaceful labour relations.
