Andrea Markey
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 21/05) - More than 80 Finning Canada employees working at the Ekati diamond mine walked off the job Thursday at noon over outsourcing by their employer.

The striking mechanics, electricians and parts people have been told they are being replaced by 30 managers from B.C. and elsewhere to work on Caterpillar heavy equipment.

"Operations at Ekati will be slowed," said mechanic Dion Wells. "There is no way the managers can keep up with what we did - they just won't have the manpower.

"But there is no way BHP (Billiton) will let operations shut down," he said. "They make too much in one day to let that happen. They will just find another contractor if they need."

The main issue for the approximately 1,070 striking Finning workers in Alberta and the NWT is contracting out by Finning. Between 90 and 100 Finning employees work in the NWT, at Ekati and in Hay River.

The union has been negotiating a new collective agreement with Finning, one of the world's largest Caterpillar equipment dealers, since their three-year contract expired on April 30.

"When people think of unions they often stereotypically think it's about money," said Jason Rockwell, an organizer with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Calgary. "Job security is the issue. It is hard to plan a family without it. Monetary issues are secondary in this."

While outsourcing hasn't directly affected the Finning employees at Ekati, the possibility of it happening in the future is enough reason to be out on the picket line, said Mike Allerston, a partsman who has worked at the Ekati site for three years.

The two plants owned and operated by Finning in Edmonton that have been outsourced in the past two years, Tracker Logistics and OEM Reman, resulted in the loss of 240 union jobs. It has also affected Allerston's ability to do his job well, he said.

"They aren't as trained and it affects our customers because there are often delays in receiving our parts orders," he said.

The four Finning employees working at the power house at the mine will remain on-site, because it was deemed an essential service by the federal government in July when the union applied for mediation, said Neil McDonald, vice-president and business representative of the union.

"The government considers people who work there two weeks on and two weeks off to be living there," he said. "We don't agree with that but there's nothing we can do."

With strike pay of $125 per week after two weeks off the job, other employment options may eventually have to be sought, said Wells. "Tradespeople are in demand right now, so I don't think I will have to think about leaving Yellowknife," he said.

Calls to Finning Canada and BHP Billiton were not returned before deadline.