According to the Free Dictionary — legal link Arbitration is a well-established and widely-used means to end disputes.
It is one of several kinds of “alternative dispute resolution,” which provides parties to a controversy with a choice other than litigation.
Apparently not at Penticton City Hall, not with the firefighters. Mayor Jakubeit went on public record stating the retroactive wages would be paid out of the reserve fund set up over the years of negotiation and that money has been paid out. Bought and paid for, a done deal.
If you had enough money to put into a reserve fund, you have enough money to put onto firefighters pay cheques. That would be the honourable thing to do.
Honourable – principled, moral, ethical, just, upright, true, fair, honest, trustworthy and creditable.
It would seem these words only describe one side of this dispute.
Now the cries ‘No money, no money.’ Parties, benefits, trips, new staff at city hall, a lot for $1 million-plus and only the angels know the fine-print that kept the casino in town. Poor infrastructure on 100 block of Main Street. So fix it, don’t turn it into a money pit.
I can tell you with great certainty, if Mayor Jakubeit and council tried to pull this crap on some of the unions I have worked in, the town would have been shut down. You don’t welch on a deal.
Garry Crassweller
Penticton