Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jul 27/98) - The Union of Northern Workers wants its day in court.

The labor group charges that the territorial government is bargaining in bad faith by refusing to remove pay equity from collective bargaining talks.

So the UNW has no other choice but to take the GNWT to court "for breaking its own laws," UNW president Jackie Simpson said last week.

Last Monday, the UNW filed documents with the NWT Supreme Court.

It was the latest move in the UNW-GNWT ongoing battle over whether or not pay equity should be included in the current round of collective agreement talks.

Discussion ended when both sides refused to budge.

This is the first time the UNW will attempt to have the GNWT charged with bad bargaining.

Up until 1995, the territorial Public Service Alliance Act allowed for arbitration. There was no need to allege bad bargaining because a third-party arbitrator could be appointed to decide.

"I'd like to see both sides get back to the bargaining table and negotiate," Simpson said.

The union feels it has solid ground to stand on because of a ruling made by the Canadian Labor Relations Board over a decade ago covering the dismissal of a UNW member in Inuvik.

In 1987, the Inuvik Housing Authorities local president was unjustly dismissed.

The employer's collective agreement offer would include a condition that the UNW withdraw its unfair labor practice complaint involving the fired worker.

The UNW refused. The labor board came down on the side of the union. The worker was reinstated.

"He was unjustly dismissed. Our complaint was well-founded," McDonald said.

Earlier this month, the GNWT attempted to move negotiations to mediation, Simpson said.

"Outside of essential services negotiations, mediation -- according to the territorial Public Service Act -- is the last step in the bargaining process before government can unilaterally impose new terms and conditions of employment on public workers unless the workers are willing to strike," Simpson said.

Neither an imposed settlement or a strike is acceptable to the UNW, she said.

Essential services talks between the UNW and the GNWT are to begin Aug. 16.

The NWT pay equity issue started back in 1989, five years after PSAC filed its complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission for federal workers.

A Canadian Human Rights Tribunal is to hear the complaint, which involves 200,000 current and former civil servants represented by PSAC.

Simpson says the UNW's tribunal hearing could take place later this year.