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Union strike a 'last resort': union president

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Todd Parsons, seen during a protest outside the legislative assembly, will be president of the Union of Northern Workers for at least one more year after the UNW announced it was pushing its triennial convention back to 2021. It was originally scheduled to happen this coming October.

Talks between the territorial government and the Union of Northern Workers (UNW) broke down over the weekend but “a strike will only be a last resort,” says union president Todd Parsons.

Union local presidents representing government workers are “calling for an immediate general strike” but the bargaining team is “committed” to seek a collective agreement that won’t result in job action, said Parsons.

The union sent GNWT workers an email Monday stating it's not its “intention to strike before Christmas, however, we are in a legal position to begin strike action if we are provoked.”

NNSL file  photo
Todd Parsons, president of the Union of Northern Workers, at a rally last winter. 

After the union shared a public communique Saturday announcing mediator-facilitated talks had failed, the GNWT issued its own public update and said it was “disappointed” with accusations that it doesn’t provide a living wage and that employees are subsidizing infrastructure projects.

It made the unusual move to share specific details from the bargaining table, including its proposal for two years without pay increases followed by increases in the next three years and boosts to the northern allowance.

Approximately 4,000 public sector employees have been without an agreement for three years. Prior to mediation, the union pushed for wage increases and increased job security for its members.

The union is concerned that more than 25 per cent of the current GNWT workforce is “precarious” and comprised of casual, term and relief positions.

The union is pursuing full-time, indeterminate work for as many union members as possible.

Parsons is “not aware of any other jurisdiction” that uses relief employees to the extent the GNWT does, he said.

More than eight years ago, the GNWT entered an agreement to institute “relief” employees, intended to cover short term leave of less than 21 days for full-time employees.

Since then, the GNWT has expanded the amount of relief employees in its workforce, according to the union.

In the Department of Justice's corrections division, there as many relief employees as there are full-time workers, Parson said.

Talks closed as of Friday evening, after mediator Vince Ready determined the parties positions were still too far apart.

Todd Sasaki, a senior communications officer with the Department of Human Resources for the GNWT, declined to comment and instead directed Yellowknifer to its Monday statement.

Ready has up to 14 days to deliver a report but the Public Service Act is not clear on whether both parties are bound to its recommendations, said Parsons.

The union has initiated strike training as a “normal course of preparation,” and is scheduling training in other places, said Parsons.

Should workers strike, there is an essential services agreement in place.

It “will not be business as usual,” said Parsons. Employees kept on for essential work may work reduced hours and businesses will feel the pinch of austerity as striking workers reduce their spending.

In 2015, the Town of Hay River was the scene of a six-month strike that caused divisions, vandalism and accusations of “scab labour” with the hiring of temporary workers.

Asked how such troubles could be avoided, Parsons acknowledged that strikes are “very divisive” for the public and even the UNW membership.

“I think people will take sides if there is a labour dispute. I think that businesses in the NWT heavily rely on public service employees to use their services and that it will directly impact them,” said Parsons.

The union recognizes that some businesses and the public won’t be supportive of the union as it seeks out a “fair deal” for its members, said Parsons.

“It has a lot of negative effects of the community and business and the emotional, financial toll it takes on our members is very great,” he said.

It is also in talks with the Northwest Territories Power Corporation and the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority, all of which could be in a legal strike position by the new year.

“I am sure the other employers are watching closely, what is happening with the big group of employees in the GNWT,” said Parsons.

Local 11 president Frank Walsh is a nurse and represents employees at Stanton Territorial Hospital.

“I don’t think anyone at all or within a union is happy with how long this has taken. We’re pushing into our third completed year without an agreement,” he told Yellowknifer.

People are unhappy with cost of living in the North, and “most people think the only way to battle the cost of living is an increase in salary,” he said.

Walsh expressed solidarity with workers in smaller centres, who are more likely to be administrative workers than health professionals, he said.

“There are a lot of Yellowknifers that are in higher echelons of pay grids. In the health centres there is a larger proportion of administrative help. A lot of the communities have a bigger stake in this,” he said.

“The stakes are so much higher and the employer hasn’t come out and said we’ll give the communities … a better wage package. We’re all in this together and we’re hoping to achieve the same goals,” he said.