Camosun College recently added a rainbow design to the bus loop at the Interurban campus and a rainbow crosswalk at the short-term parking at Lansdowne. Victoria company Scho’s Line Painting did the painting work, which CUPE local 2081, the union that represents Camosun College support staff, is not happy about.
An internal email announcing the new painting was sent to college employees on July 7 and contained the sentence “A huge thanks to Brian Calvert and the Facilities Services crew who did all the planning and painting!” CUPE local 2081 president Keith Todd asked the college to specify that college employees did not do the painting, so the college then sent a correction out.
Todd says it was “disrespectful” of the college to contract the work out, as it took work away from unionized employees. He says that the contracting out of painting remains an issue for him and his members.
“When it comes to contracting out, we stand up for our members,” says Todd.
Todd says that while there is no one at the college qualified for sidewalk and line painting, there are staffers that do similar work, so maybe something could have been arranged.
“We have facilities staff that paint the railings, paint the benches, paint the stairwell railings and things like that, so maybe the answer could be yes,” says Todd on if there are unionized college workers who could do the job. “We do understand, you know, if four or five classrooms need to be painted, maybe that is something that could be contracted out, but we’re usually consulted on that.”
Todd says that when the college is going to contract out work they usually give CUPE 2081 a heads-up; they didn’t this time. (The college is not required through its collective agreement with CUPE 2081 to tell the union when it is contracting out; the agreement also states that the college reserves the right to contract out when there are not qualified in-house workers.) The college also contracted out services at Conversations Day in February, which “appalled” Todd; he says the union received an apology from the college for that incident. Part of the problem for Todd this time around is that Camosun did not give ample notice when they contracted out.
Camosun associate director of facilities Brian Calvert—who is not a CUPE member, but manages workers who are—says there is a difference between traffic painting and regular painting jobs.
“The product that’s applied is a specialized traffic paint, so it’s not like your regular painters that are painting buildings,” says Calvert. “It’s a specialty company.”
Calvert says the college’s maintenance department, as the name suggests, maintains.
“Our maintenance guys are here to maintain existing,” says Calvert. “The college has a settlement agreement that they follow on contracting out, and that’s exactly what the college did. It’s more of a miscommunication, which the college has apologized for.”
Calvert says Todd is “absolutely right” when he says the college should give the union more notice next time they contract out.
“If there’s work, they get to have the opportunity to question any work,” says Calvert, clarifying that this only applies as long as the work in question falls under the operating budget. However, he says this project was financed through capital funding rather than the operating budget.
Calvert—who says that the college’s maintenance staff did the prep work and clean-up for the sidewalk painting—says that CUPE voicing their concerns in the past resulted in the college no longer contracting out window-filming work, and says that “the college and the union work pretty well together on this subject” of contracting out.
“We can’t get it right all the time, but I think generally we try to really work together on all this,” he says. “It’s an unfortunate incident, but we’ll try to do better next time.”
Todd says that the lack of communication between the college and the union is concerning, but says that it can’t be discussed until the fall because there are usually no meetings between the college and the union in the summer.