Westminster Savings Credit Union plans to close its Shaughnessy Station branch in Port Coquitlam but its employees — who have been on strike for almost six months — won’t let it shut down without putting up a fight.
Eight unionized employees, members of Movement of United Professionals (MoveUP), hit the picket line Jan. 22 after going two years without a contract.
But in its announcement that it will close the branch in the fall, Westminster Savings insisted the dispute — which centres around a new pension plan and security — and a pending merger with Prospera Credit Union were not factors in its decision.
Westminster said it is closing the branch because: another location is nearby at Sunwood Square in Coquitlam; the PoCo branch is too large given that more members are taking advantage of online banking; there has been a decline of in-branch visits and transactions; and the cost would be high to upgrade the branch to conform with the credit union’s new look.
“The current branch model would need some significant upgrades,” said Westminster spokesperson Jeff McDonald. “It’s a trend in the financial services toward smaller facilities. “The need for those larger facilities just isn’t there anymore."
McDonald said the required renovations would have included adding and removing walls, relocating equipment and lighting, refinishing floors and walls, and modernizing the branch. He noted the credit union’s new branch in the River District in southeast Vancouver is a much smaller footprint with a different look and feel.
He added the decline in transactions was happening before the branch went behind the picket line, leaving it with limited service provided by branch managers.
“The business case for closure is based on a longer analysis than that. The union status of the branch, regardless of the branch, didn’t factor in the decision to close it,” McDonald said.
“This wasn’t a quick decision at all. We actually reduced the size of the branch once before in 2005, and for a long time we have been considering other locations for this branch.”
McDonald also pointed out Westminster Savings recently closed a branch in north Burnaby that was not unionized.
But MoveUP president David Black isn’t buying the company’s contention its decision isn’t about the branch’s unionized status. The employees went on strike to fight the switch by Westminster Savings to a new pension plan on July 1, 2018. Although employees hired before then are able to stay on the previous plan, Black maintains the new fund is an unsecured scheme that won’t benefit either the new employees or the current ones because the previous plan provided a guaranteed pension with the proposed one putting all the risk on the individual. At the time of the strike, Black pointed out the company’s managers were keeping the previous plan for themselves.
“They’ve been very clear that they’re going to get rid of this pension plan regardless of what we say,” said Black. “I guess they finally realized that our members and union won’t get rid of that pension and security.
“They’re striking for, in essence, all of us. We know employers [all over the province] are trying to get rid of these pension obligations.
“The stand is not only being taken on behalf of themselves but those that follow of them… It’s not just their pensions they’re fighting for it’s everyone’s pensions.”
Black said he's hopeful credit union members, many of whom are union members, will be able to vote against the moves. He added other unions are watching this small dispute closely and are helping out the cause.
“Credit union members have already told us they are very upset with the management at the union. They are not happy with what [Westminster president and CEO] Gavin Toy is doing,” said Black. “They are not acting on behalf of the members, there’s another agenda at work.”
Black said the Shaughnessy Station branch has been a profitable one and nearby branches can’t keep up because its members won’t cross the picket line.
“Those arguments don’t wash with us. If these arguments were valid, we would have heard about it before this,” said Black. “This is another attempt to break the union.”
Friday afternoon, the union held a march down Lougheed Highway from the Shaughnessy to Sunwood Square branches to protest the closure. Their ranks, accompanied by the RCMP as they proceeded down the westbound slow lane, were bolstered by support from three busloads of members from various other unions — including several women sporting International Longshore Workers Union Local 142 Hawaii pink shirts — chanting rallying cries such as “What’s disgusting? Union busting!”
Westminster Savings said it is contacting branch members, including those with safety deposit boxes, and will accommodate any request to transfer accounts to an alternate branch or to close the account.
