By Greg Fry

Mediation talks continue between Gateway Casinos and BCGEU

Jun 21, 2018 | 9:20 AM

KAMLOOPS — “Where there’s talk, there’s hope.”

The words of BCGEU Executive Vice-President Doug Kinna in relation to mediation talks currently underway with Gateway Casinos.

He says both parties sat down for their first talks last Friday and have set another mediation date for June 25.

“Well, there was some progress on some non-monetary items like scheduling and picking shifts and things like that but the monetary items weren’t put on the table.”

Kinna says the union — whose nearly 700 members (including over 200 in Kamloops) voted 93.1 per cent in favour of strike action earlier this month — continue to hold off on issuing 72 hour strike notice.

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“It would be when we see there’s no possibility to achieve an agreement. It’s not what we’re after; we’re just trying to achieve a living wage and an industry standard agreement for our members and we can’t settle for less.”

Earlier comments would suggest coming to a monetary agreement will be a challenge, as just last week Gateway released an open letter to the public alleging the union was proposing a 62 per cent average increase in wages on top of significant increases to benefits.

Gateway called the demands “not reasonable” while BCGEU President Stephanie Smith countered “when you have extremely small dollar amounts those percentages certainly do increase.”

The last collective agreement ended in September, 2017.