To the Editor,
Re: Council votes for 24-per cent raise, Sept. 22.
How can anyone who voted for the 24-per cent raise for the Nanaimo city council tell us they have any sense of reality or financial responsibility?
I did not get 24-per cent raise in the 20 years that I had a union job at the hospital.
Do they not read the papers or listen to the news?
We are in a recession where both senior governments are cutting back on budgets, services and demanding zero increases in the cost of any new collective agreement contracts.
Why do they feel they deserve any raise with the job they have done, let alone 24 per cent?
Instead of looking at the other council raises of equal size B.C. municipalities, why not look at the average increase in the residents of Nanaimo that pay their wages?
They could look at the raises of groups like the Hospital Employees’ Union, postal workers, Harmac employees, truck drivers, RCMP, ferry workers, etc., got in the past three years and take an average.
These are groups that many feel make a good or reasonable wage.
I find it embarrassing that the council that we voted in would be that greedy to vote any raise, let alone 24 per cent in today’s economic times.
It is leadership like this why so many countries need bailouts.
Is council planning to give all the city management staff and union employees the same 24 per cent over the next three years or do they only value council work?
Terrance Wagstaff
Nanaimo