Fort Smith strikers reach deal
UNW president pleased an agreement reached after month-long dispute
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Monday, March 2, 2015
THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
An almost month-long strike at the Fort Smith Housing Authority is over.
An agreement to end the walkout was reached Feb. 27 and ratified by the workers later that day.
They will return to work today.
While the employees voted in favour of the agreement, the exact vote count was not available as of Friday.
Todd Parsons, president of the Union of Northern Workers (UNW), said he is pleased an agreement has been reached.
"The employer provided us with a fair and reasonable offer that we were able to negotiate with," he said. "We resolved with economic increases in a three-year collective agreement that includes two per cent in the first year, 2.5 per cent in the second year and 2.5 per cent in the third year."
Parsons said there were also improvements made to provide the same type of benefits to all classes of employees, whether they are full-time indeterminate, term or casuals.
"So the collective agreement applies to everybody equally," he explained.
There are also some improvements to other benefits, although Parsons said the union side wasn't successful in negotiating an increase to the housing allowance.
"We moved off our position in an effort to find agreement with the employer," he said.
The agreement is retroactive to April 1, 2014.
The eight unionized workers walked off the job Feb. 2.
They include carpenters, plumbers, painters and others who manage and maintain approximately 150 GNWT-owned housing units.
One of the strikers, Kevin Mageean, the tenants relations officer with the housing authority, said he is happy the workers have reached an agreement.
"To be truthful, it's been a long month, and I'm pleased that we're able to go back to work Monday morning," he said, although he admitted to being a little apprehensive. "It was a tough negotiation, and I've hoping for everyone's sake that they realize that it was business and that it was not personal."
Mageean, who was on the negotiating team for the union, said he personally has some mixed emotions about the agreement, although he declined to elaborate.
"For the vast majority of the employees, they were satisfied with the deal that we got," he said. "It was the best deal that we could get. They all realized it."
They are members of Local 2 of the UNW - a component of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), which is its certified bargaining agent.
News/North was unsuccessful in obtaining a comment on the end of the strike from the Fort Smith Housing Authority,
which has not commented throughout the labour dispute.
The strike came to an end after a mediation officer invited union representatives and the housing authority back to the bargaining table Feb. 26 and 27.
During the strike, the housing authority's offices remained open from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. each workday.
The picket line did not prevent tenants from paying their rent.
