Energy corporation strike possible, union and management negotiating
Workers have been without a contract since December 2013
Casey Lessard
Northern News Services
Monday, July 13, 2015
IQALUIT
Negotiators headed into this past weekend to try to avert a strike by Qulliq Energy Corporation (QEC)workers, with the Nunavut Employees' Union (NEU)arguing for a fair wage package and the government countering that it had presented a reasonable package considering the economic climate.
"We're not that far apart," said NEU president Bill Fennell.
"We're looking for a fair wage package that at least meets the GDP. I mean that's how close we are. We're hoping the government will make that move."
"We believe that the offer that we last put forward is quite reasonable," Nunavut comptroller Jeff Chown said going into the weekend, "when you take into consideration the current economic environment and other collective agreements that have been settled around the country. We believe we have a fair offer on the table right now, but we're certainly willing to talk with the union and see if we can't come to a settlement."
QEC workers have been without a contract since the end of December 2013.
The two sides went into mediation in December 2014 but the mediator declared an impasse.
"At that point, we had negotiated an essential service agreement but it hadn't been signed," Fennell said. "So we reopened that and eventually signed it in early March. In February, we did a strike vote and received a strong strike mandate from the membership."
He said the workers could have gone on strike near Easter, but the Pangnirtung plant fire stopped that from happening.
"We're not going to put the public at risk," he said, noting that in the event of a strike, "plant superintendents would all be at work as normal. Their assistants are emergency essential, so if there were the threat of a power outage, they would be called in.
"The linemen, engineers, mechanics will be off. Some of those positions are essential emergency so that if something is happening, QEC would call the union and then call in the workers."
In June, the bargaining team recommended rejecting the final offer, which members did.
Both sides agreed to return to the bargaining table one last time.
"We're hopeful that we'll get a deal," Fennell said, matching sentiments expressed by Chown.
Fennell did note that he was unclear why QEC, which is an arms-length Crown corporation with its own president and board of directors, had stopped the previous practice of negotiating on its own.
For the current negotiations, the Department of Finance is acting on behalf of the corporation.
Chown explained that the former Department of Human Resources previously took part in negotiations, but that department was absorbed by Finance, which is responsible for the Public Service Act that regulates collective agreements.
Even if talks break down over the weekend, the union must give 48 hours of the first labour disruption, Fennell said.
