CSE Employees Vote Overwhelmingly in Favour of Ratifying New Five-Year Contract

Vancouver—Employees of Canucks Sports & Entertainment (CSE) voted overwhelmingly in favour of ratifying a five-year collective agreement providing solid wage gains and many other improvements.

The 2,000 employees, who work at Rogers Arena, are represented by Service, Health, Manufacturing, and Allied Workers Union, CLAC Local 501. The union has represented them since 2006.

The new contract provides employees with wage increases ranging from 11 to 17 percent for all those not receiving gratuities. In addition, a $1 per hour premium for designated part-time conversions employees was negotiated. Other improvements include enhanced contract language to incorporate union input on job training needs, the ability of employees to add a secondary classification allowing for more job opportunities, improved availability requirements for flexible part-time employment maintenance, improved safety footwear allowance for conversions staff and material handlers who have worked five years or longer, and more.

“Negotiations spanned many months, but we’re very pleased with the end result,” says Tanis deZara, CLAC representative. “We brought an initial settlement to the membership for ratification in November 2023, but 60 percent voted no. The union bargaining committee did an excellent job of identifying members’ needs and securing them through subsequent negotiations. We’re pleased that this time the contract received overwhelming support from the membership, with 87 percent voting in favour of ratification. The relationship between the union and CSE management has matured over the years, and a collaborative approach has developed, leading to this strong settlement.”

CSE is a sports and entertainment company in Vancouver that owns and operates the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League, the Vancouver Warriors of the National Lacrosse League, and their home arena, Rogers Arena.