Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 19/98) - The territorial government wants a court-appointed mediator to restart stalled collective bargaining talks with the Union of Northern Workers, it was announced yesterday.

"Over the past three months the GNWT has listened carefully to comments on the government's settlement offer. Although the consensus of opinion is that the offer is a good one for employees, there remains some concerns that we want to address through proposed changes to the offer at mediation," Finance Minister John Todd said.

On July 13, the GNWT suggested that the UNW return to the bargaining table with the assistance of a mediator and served formal notice of mediation two days later.

The UNW responded by accusing the GNWT of bargaining in bad faith and filing a complaint with the NWT Supreme Court.

UNW President Jackie Simpson said, under the Public Services Act, both sides must agree they are bargaining in good faith before a mediator is appointed.

The union charges that the GNWT pushed collective bargaining to an impasse by insisting settlement of the pay equity complaint be part of the negotiation. And that's bargaining in bad faith, Simpson said.

Simpson also said the union hopes Supreme Court will hear its bad faith bargaining complaint Sept. 21 and 22.

Union members have been without a contract since March 31.

Talks stalled because the GNWT wanted a collective agreement to include resolution of the outstanding pay equity issue. The UNW wants the two issues dealt with separately.