Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services
Iqaluit (Jun 18/01) - An e-mail message a week before the Nunavut Employees Union went on strike threatened "possible bodily harm" against union members crossing the picket line.
Dated April 11, the message stated: "I would like to send a strong message and discourage those people (union members) who intend to cross the picket lines ... I am not quite sure what those consequences would be outside of possible bodily harm."
Forty-two minutes later, a response to the original sender said: "Please ... no bodily harm."
The response then proceeded to list possible line-crossing consequences including fines, inclusion on a "wall of shame" at the union hall and potential future workplace difficulties.
The letter also stated: "We may send a delegation of picketers to the individual's home to counsel them about the harm they are doing ..."
The e-mails -- with all names and identifying addresses blacked out -- were made public by Cambridge Bay MLA Kelvin Ng during the last session of the Legislative Assembly.
"It clearly shows that intimidation," Ng said in the House, "that some union leadership were practicing during and leading up to the job action."
When contacted last week, union president Doug Workman said he did not write either message nor had anyone on the union's executive. He would not say who the authors were, but did say the union member who responded to the first e-mail was "overzealous."
"The person that wrote the e-mail has been spoken to," said Workman.
As for the menacing tone of the e-mails, he said the union did not condone violence, but emotions ran high during negotiations and labour unrest.
"I understand that it's stressful and that it's a difficult time when we're in negotiations. To me, it's part of the climate of negotiating. I wish it was friendly, but sometimes it's not."
He said he had received threatening e-mails from senior government officials.
"If I downloaded all my e-mails of a threatening nature from cabinet ministers and senior management and took it personally and took it to the media, we would be here a long time," said Workman. "They're not nice letters. They don't say, 'Doug, I want to give you a big hug and kiss."
Workman declined to reveal what the alleged correspondence did say.
