Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 13/99) - GWNT workers will vote on whether to accept the territorial government's latest collective agreement proposal within six weeks, said Jackie Simpson, president of the Union of Northern Workers.

Speaking by telephone from her Yellowknife office Monday, Simpson said the government had requested a period of about two weeks simply to print enough copies of the proposal for the UNW's approximately 3,000 government workers.

Meanwhile, the UNW bargaining committee, which voted Friday to accept the proposal, is busy implementing the agreed modifications and changing clauses and definitions in the proposal.

"We still have a big job ahead of us, but we're hoping that within three weeks we'll have the packages in the mail for the workers to review," she said.

According to a Friday UNW news release, the proposed two-year agreement provides a $500 Northern allowance bonus for 1998, a $500 Northern allowance bonus for 1999, implementation of the Hay Plan, a new Job Evaluation Review Board headed by an independent chairperson and a minimum of two per cent more money.