The City of Vancouver paid to conduct a strike-related survey.
The City of Vancouver released the results of two questions of a commissioned poll to try to help resolve the civic strike, a city spokesman said yesterday, but it seems to have only further strained tensions between the union and the city.Jerry Dobrovolny confirmed that the city paid Ipsos-Reid $9,000 to conduct a telephone survey of 300 Vancouverites on strike-related issues. Mr. Dobrovolny would not say how many questions were asked and would release the results of only two questions.
He said that 89 per cent of those polled felt a 17½-per-cent settlement over five years was a fair deal and that 60 per cent of respondents were worried about the tax burden of the settlement.
“It supports what the city has been saying for the past month. We’re hoping that will help to resolve the dispute,” Mr. Dobrovolny said.
However, the poll seems to have further inflamed the city’s relationship with the union.
CUPE BC president Barry O’Neill questioned doing a poll on something the city is unlikely to change, since the wages and term of the contract are mandated by the Greater Vancouver Regional Labour Relations Bureau, and not public opinion.
“I don’t know what benefit it would be to spend one dollar on what their mandate is already about,” Mr. O’Neill said. He added that he thinks the city may have been stalling on getting back to the table while it awaited the poll results.
Mr. O’Neill also took Mr. Dobrovolny to task for releasing only results that were favourable to the city, since he was told the poll had around eight questions, including one about whether the strike was supported.
“I think it’s highly unethical to get a poll done with the public purse and just release what they think is good or bad,” Mr. O’Neill said.
One woman who took the poll, but did not want to be named, said one question directly asked who you supported, the union or the city. Mr. Dobrovolny, who would not confirm whether that question was asked, said the entire poll will be released eventually, but could not say when.
“We will release the complete poll, but it’s a sensitive time right now because we’re in bargaining today,” he said. The union representing Vancouver’s library workers, CUPE 391, met with the library board at the table yesterday. The unions representing Vancouver’s inside and outside workers have not met with the city since last week, and no date is set to resume negotiations.
The city spokesman also took the union to task for publishing on its website that the cost of the poll was $120,000.
“It is inflammatory and really damaging to the process when they say on their website that the City of Vancouver poll costs $120,000 with an exclamation point after it,” Mr. Dobrovolny said.
