Information picket rallying around union president outside Pathways to Independence

Protest chants and honking horns could be heard as members of OPSEU Local 448 held an information picket outside the Pathways to Independence building on Pinnacle Street in Belleville on Friday.

The protest is to show support for their president, Kim Mayer.

Regional Vice President of OPSEU Region 4 Melissa Shaw spoke with Quinte News about the information picket.

She says the reason for the show of support is due to Pathways not recognizing the full-time book off of the union president.

“Our constitution states that any group that’s over 650 members with multiple sites, which this group has, the union will pay for the president to be booked off full-time, wages, pension, benefits, everything,” Shaw tells Quinte News.

“So it’s at no cost to the employer in order to make sure that the union function well for the members, and in this bargaining cycle, they have decided that as of tomorrow, they’re no longer going to be honoring the president’s book off.”

Shaw calls the move an “anti-union animus” act, saying it violates Section 86 of the Ontario Labour Relations Act.

A number of members, including ones outside the area, came out to show their support.

“We have members from Pathways. We have members from all across the region, (some) came from Cornwall, came from Kingston to come and support. We had members from CUPE out here, because really a violation like this that this employer is doing is really an attempt to union bust, in our opinion, and to make the union not function as well.”

Despite the cold and rainy weather, Shaw says that it’s important for the union to show their support to Mayer.

“We’re going to rally out here, rally behind Kim,” Shaw said.

“She’s a great president, and the members want her as their leader in this employ, in this position, and so we’re up here to support her in that.”