Malcolm Gorrill
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 10/00) - A woman fasting on behalf of Giant miners is about to have company.

Mary Kosta, who began her hunger strike Feb. 29, will be joined this weekend by Giant workers seeking signatures for a petition to be sent to Ottawa next week.

The petition is being organized by a community group formed to support Giant miners. At issue is the fact no severance has been given to 250 workers who were laid off from the bankrupt mine in October.

As well, retired Giant workers in the hourly pension plan are bracing for a 25 per cent cut to their pensions, beginning April 1.

Steven Petersen, plant chair of the Canadian AutoWorkers Local 2304 and a member of the community group, said Jim Wiley will begin fasting today (Friday).

"He's going to be the first pensioner to start it," Petersen said. "He's going to be parking his van at the post office. He's going to fast there.

"Mary will be joining him there. And then he'll be joined by a series of others," Petersen said. "He's also going to have the petition there, and so people can come up and sign up."

The petition is calling on the Canadian government to immediately halt the proposed 25 per cent cut to pensions of retired and not yet retired workers as well as provide compensation to the workers who were laid off in October without legal notice or severance package.

The petition will be taken to several places in town throughout the weekend.

Petersen said his group hopes to have their petition introduced in the House of Commons Wednesday or Thursday. He said Pat Martin, labour critic for the NDP, will broach the subject in the House on Monday.

Meanwhile, Kosta said Wednesday she's managing well.

"I'm OK," said Kosta, the wife of a laid-off miner. "It's day nine."

Kosta said she was surprised to learn that the pension cutbacks will also impact on widows who are beneficiaries of their late husbands' pensions.

"It's just something that struck me when I got a phone call from a daughter whose mother is losing her pension. And she's a widow," Kosta said.

"It's something that I didn't think of."

Petersen said the widows, who currently are granted 50 per cent of their husbands' pensions, will lose 25 per cent of that after April.

Dave Nutter, DIAND's special advisor of the Royal Oak team, said Wednesday there was nothing new to report.

"We've not entered into any formal discussions with the pensioners or anybody with the CAW," Nutter said. "We're still involved in internal investigations within the federal government to determine what the best means would be to address this issue."

Pointing out the matter involved several government agencies, Nutter said he couldn't say how long this would take.

"The federal government is certainly concerned about the hunger strike," Nutter said. "We certainly hope we can resolve the situation as soon as possible."