Niagara Parks Commission protest cut in hours

Niagara Falls Review

More than 100 Niagara Parks Commission employees marched to Table Rock on Sunday to protest what they say are unfair working conditions.

According to the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, about 1,000 seasonal employees have had their hours reduced from 44 or 40 hours to 37.5 hours.

“They’ve cut hours of work so people cannot make a reasonable living,” said Bill Rudd, president of OPSEU Local 217.

Jim Williams, NPC chairman, said visitation is down in the park due to the downturn in the economy so the agency needs to be “very prudent in our expenditures.”

Rather than simply letting staff go, Williams said the park looked for innovative ways to share what work is available among its employees.

“We’re asking staff to reduce their work week by two-and-a-half hours for the sake of their colleague’s jobs. Anything other than that, then we’d be running at a deficit.”

“We’re trying to ensure that through these tough recessionary times we have a stable business that will grow and prosper once we come out of this recession.”

Rudd said the decision to cut hours is the result of a “heavy handed management that is making poor decisions.”

“Cutting the hours of one restaurant worker doesn’t save you any money because you have to replace them with someone else,” he added.

The employees affected include maintenance workers who look after the commission’s 1,720 hectares of parkland to the servers in the parks’ restaurants.

“The condition of the park has deteriorated and the service we give our customers has deteriorated,” Rudd said. “We need those customers, we offend them once and they won’t come back.”

Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor attended the rally and said recent actions by the commission has caused him some concern.

“There’s some been decisions that I’ve questioned,” he said, adding he has taken his concerns to Queen’s Park.

Welland MP Peter Kormos on Sunday called for a public inquiry into the commission’s business practices.

“The Niagara Parks Commission should be disbanded and those commissioners sent home,” he said.

Members of Worker United Local 2347, which represents restaurant servers, also participated in the rally.