Deal between police board and CUPE members finalized

After a long negotiation, an agreement between the Moose Jaw Board of Police and the support workers represented by CUPE is finalized, including most notably a pay increase that will continue through 2020.

Being a four-year agreement that began in 2017, the new terms will affect workers through to 2020, when a new agreement will then be discussed.

But for now, support workers at the police station — including dispatchers and those taking local calls and reports — will see a wage increase of 1.5 per cent for 2017 and 2018, 1.5 per cent for 2019, and 2.25 per cent in 2020.

There is also an additional increase of 1.5 per cent at the end of the term, to provide equality of wages between those who do the same job in different cities.

Stacey Landin, president for CUPE Local 9 here in Moose Jaw, is pleased with the results.

“It's good feeling, it's a positive thing for folks,” said Landin. “I believe people are pleased to have reached the result that we did. And, certainly, the Local is proud of what's been done, so we're happy about it.” 

She noted that many people don’t realize that there are quite a few civilian staff members at our local police station, many of which people interact with every time they make a call there. 

“There's around 40 people that it will affect, so it's a good number of folks that are, I'm sure, pleased about the results of this agreement being settled,” said Landin. “They serve a very important role to our public and certainly to public safety, so we're proud of the work they do and we're pleased that they reached a good agreement.”