A petition is circulating to send Kelowna Cabs’s locked-out dispatchers back to work.
The unionized dispatchers have been without a collective agreement since May 2019, when the previous one expired. According to MoveUP, the dispatchers’ union, the company is trying to outsource the work to an overseas call centre.
Kelowna Cabs has locked out its dispatchers since late February. MoveUP, says the outsourcing of local jobs spells their eventual elimination and less user-friendly service.
As of Thursday (March 18), a Change.org petition has garnered almost 400 signatures supporting the dispatchers. The petition asks Kelowna Cabs to rescind the lockout and return to the bargaining table “in good faith and commit to protecting local jobs by withdrawing the demand to outsource work to an overseas call centre.”
Previously, the company attempted to layoff the dispatchers in favour of a web-based application. The B.C. Labour Relations Board subsequently rescinded those layoff notices, saying the company made “no meaningful effort at all to engage with the union in collective bargaining.”
Kelowna Cabs did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Capital News.
READ MORE: Dispatch staff to remain with Kelowna Cabs after union fight
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