Union of Northern Workers Todd Parsons, candidate and current NWT MP Dennis Bevington and Yellowknife Centre MLA candidate Julie Green chat over chili at the Labour Day event at the Stanton Plaza across the street from Wal-Mart on Sept. 7. - Karen K. Ho/NNSL photo

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The Northern Territories Federation of Labour celebrated Labour Day in Yellowknife with a two-hour community event at the Stanton Plaza.

There was plenty of cupcakes, chili (both vegetarian and beef), bannock and even a bouncy castle for the children.

At the height of the lunch, more than 40 people filled the tables set up in the parking lots in front of the federation's offices.

Treasurer and administrator Alex Lambrecht said the event was a good occasion to mark the organization's wins over the past year including better pay and benefits.

"This is the Christmas and New Year's for labour," he told Yellowknifer.

Lambrecht said the federation advocates on behalf of affiliates and for all workers, not only the ones who are unionized.

"I think that's something a lot of people believe is that the fed only exists to represent union workers," he said. "The people that make the fed's work possible are the affiliates such as the locals of the unions of steelworkers, machinists, tons of other unions."

Lambrecht said the money collected through union dues goes right back into the community through advocacy and supporting members during strikes.

"We work to bring everybody together and get everybody working together so we can all progress and have the same gains," he said.

Lambrecht said that the high cost of living in Yellowknife is why general wage increases are so important.

"Ensuring that people have enough money to pay bills and buy food," he said.

Union of Northern Workers president Todd Parsons was also at the event. He acknowledged it was unusual for a union to fight for transportation, as is the case with many unionized workers currently working at the Ekati diamond mine.

However, Parsons said the company made a promise to transport those workers from their point of hire, be it Edmonton, Calgary or other parts of Canada. He said this situation was really misunderstood and the criticism that his organization didn't represent the interest of its Northern members was unfair.

"We're fighting for all workers, not just Northern workers," he said. "When they were originally hired, it wasn't a unionized workforce with BHP."

As for the future, Parsons said the UNW has a lot of collective bargaining coming up with the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the NWT Power Corporation and the GNWT, where it has more than 4,000 unionized members.

Along with the current negotiations with Ekati and Dominion Diamond, Parsons is definitely going to be busy for the next few months.

"It's a challenging environment to be bargaining in," he said. "Resources are strained right now and we want to build community support in Yellowknife and other communities as well."

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