The 19 elected reps in the legislative assembly bought themselves a $71,000 headache by allowing a wage freeze to thaw just as they are pleading poverty with unionized workers.
Surely the 1.6 per cent wage hike the MLAs received hasn’t been worth the public relations beating they’ve received at the hands of the Union of Northern Workers (UNW), which has been without a contract since 2016.
It’s a pretty easy argument for the union to make: as its members contemplate walking off the job over stagnant employment security and wages, MLAs look like uncaring fat cats who are getting a raise.
Now Yellowknifer isn’t saying the MLAs don’t deserve to have regular increases to their pay packets. It’s expensive to live in the NWT and for about a decade, MLA salaries have been automatically adjusted each year by the same percentage as that of the increase or decrease to the previous year's consumer price index.
On April 1, the basic salary of all MLAs rose $1,662 to $105,513. This 1.6 per cent wage hike is in line with the 1.6 per cent average increase to the consumer price index in 2017.
However, a remarkably short-sighted piece of political wisdom in 2016 has come home to bite the MLAs in their collective butt.
In March of that year, amid concerns over the territory's fiscal and economic situation, MLAs voted for an amendment to the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act that would freeze their salaries in 2016 and 2017.
It would appear the MLAs didn’t expect the clash with the union to still be in play in 2018.
But even if a new contract had been signed by now with the union, the simple fact the MLAs would be getting a raise would requite some effective communicating with the populace, as there would likely be some elected reps who would grandstand about not wanting the raises, placing others in a difficult position.
As every trip taken by cabinet or committee comes under spending scrutiny by the media — everyone still looking for another $16 glass of orange juice, as enjoyed by former Conservative cabinet minister Bev Oda — just allowing a wage-freeze agreement to expire and returning to the status quo will obviously be a very big deal.
Nearly 70 per cent of UNW members who cast ballots at strike votes this year are reportedly in favour of a strike should the GNWT not make a new wage offer.
The GNWT proposes a four-year collective agreement, retroactive to April 1, 2016, with no wage increases for the first two years, followed by a one per cent hike in the third year, and a 1.1 per cent raise in the fourth year.
The union is asking for a three-year deal with a three per cent wage increase each year.
Clearly a wide divide remains and the two sides must find a clear way to a middle ground — and soon — as a strike would tear at our already fragile Northern economy.
The MLAs would have been wise to have bitten the raise bullet for another year, so as not to throw salt on the open wound these labour talks have become.