Kootenay Savings Credit Union and the United Steelworkers’ (USW) Locals 9705 and 1‐405 have been in contract negotiations for almost 12 months, and last evening, the union chose to serve Kootenay Savings with strike notice.

In response to the strike notice, Kootenay Savings issued a lock-out notice as a precautionary measure to ensure it can manage service delivery to its members in the event of a disruption, Kootenay Savings noted in a press release this afternoon (Oct. 18).

“We had four days of mediated talks scheduled this week with Mediator Dave Schaub. We are very disappointed that the union asked the mediator to book out after only a half day of talks.

“While the parties have been successful in working through a number of improvements to the collective agreement during this set of negotiations, we have not been successful in getting the union’s assistance to address two critical needs regarding pension language and wages,” Kootenay Savings reported.

“For many years, we have been pleased to provide our employees with a rich Defined Benefit Pension Plan through a multi‐employer B.C. Credit Union Plan, and we remain committed to continuing our participation in the plan that the B.C. Credit Union Trust offers. That plan is controlled by a Board of Trustees who make modifications to the plan from time to time to ensure it can continue to meet its obligations to plan members.

“While a defined benefit pension plan is costly to maintain, we are fully prepared to continue our participation. The problem is that our current pension language holds us to unlimited financial liability for any changes that the trustees may make to the plan. This is a highly unusual requirement, and no other credit union in the B.C. plan is required to do so, including other credit unions in the plan who have employees represented by the Steelworkers,” Kootenay Savings said.

“This language creates the risk of a potentially untenable financial burden to the credit union, and we are simply seeking the same level of financial responsibility as all other credit union employers who participate in the plan. We have a fiduciary responsibility to our 38,000 members and our 200 employees to protect the financial health of our organization.

“We highly value all of our employees at Kootenay Savings, and we provide salaries and benefits that are very competitive when compared to other financial institutions, and some of the highest bargaining unit wages when compared to credit unions across the province,” stated the credit union that has offices in Kimberley, as well as in the Central Kootenay.

“We are fully committed to successfully concluding a new collective agreement, and remain ready and willing to meet with the union at any time,” Kootenay Savings’ press release concluded.

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