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Layoffs will hurt half of NWT residents

Labour Views
with Todd Parson
Guest columnist
Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Previous labour columns 

Defending workers rights is a union's primary job. That is no small task especially when management, in this case the Government of the Northwest Territories, announces program cuts.

The need to defend these positions becomes even more urgent when you consider the effect of the layoffs will ripple through approximately half the population of the NWT - not to mention the loss of decent jobs in the communities and the financial loss to small business.

How do I arrive at this conclusion? Well, there are 5,000 members of the Union of Northern Workers, the majority working for the GNWT or related employers, such as Nats'ejée K'éh Treatment Centre, the only drug and alcohol treatment centre in Northwest Territories.

Added to these members are the approximately 1,200 Public Service Alliance of Canada members who work for the Federal Government and GNWT, in locations such as the Hay River hospital.

This makes a total of approximately 6,200 union members that work for government in some form or another. If each worker lives in a household with three family members, that equals 19,600 people who are potentially affected by the government cuts. That equates to half of the population of the NWT.

One would think Premier/Finance Minister Floyd Roland would be sensitive to this fact when he proposes a budget.

Evidently not.

It is becoming increasingly clear that his proposed cuts are not supported by any kind of plan. MLA Robert Hawkins made this point recently in the Yellowknifer.

"This past week I've been talking to constituents and meeting with the UNW regarding the proposed reductions that the government has put forward. At this point, I am deciding as to whether I will support the budget or not. I am on the position that the government's plan isn't well thought out and am hopeful at this point that they will respond positively to members and public concern," he wrote.

A government without a plan, making what I call arbitrary cuts for reasons they can't articulate or substantiate, has not put the best interest of Northerners first. It makes one wonder if there is a hidden agenda to benefit a few over the majority.

There is a solution. Ask your MLA to vote no for the budget. Defeating the budget will send a message to the premier to go back to the drawing board and present a document that will reflect the true financial status of the NWT.

- Todd Parson is the president of the Union of Northrern Workers