Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 22/99) - The NWT may escape the direct effects of Canada-wide strikes launched Monday by the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

"It's highly unlikely there will be any strike activity here," said Jean-Francois De Lauriers, PSAC's regional executive vice-president, speaking from his Yellowknife office earlier this week.

"The kinds of strike action we're taking are strategic, so they are rotating and taking place in areas where they will have a large-scale effect on employers," he said. "Strike activity here (in the NWT) would directly affect the public and there are no large revenue-generating services here."

De Lauriers said if the situation were to change and strikes in the NWT were considered, PSAC would first go to its membership to obtain a new strike mandate.

De Lauriers said PSAC workers striking for "equal pay for equal work" around the country do not resent the lack of activity by PSAC's 9,000 members in the NWT.

"There is no resentment," he said. "Right now there's a lot of support and solidarity, and we're trying to minimize the impact on our membership."

Strike targets currently include the Halifax Dockyard, the Revenue Canada office in St. John's and workers are picketing Canadian Armed Forces bases in Ontario and British Columbia.

De Lauriers said the strategy behind the rotating strikes is to keep employers guessing.

"The idea is to keep the employers off-balance, so that they don't know from day to day what part of the business will be affected," he said. "It's all designed to get the employers back to the bargaining table."