Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Nov 18/98) - Compared to the usual tone of collective bargaining between the Union of Northern Workers and the territorial government, last week's three-day session was a love-in.

Union public relations and research officer Barbara Weisbeck said the Nov. 11-12 session ended on "fairly amicable terms, the best relations the two sides have had."

The last time the two sides met at the bargaining table was May 8, when the government tabled what it then called its final offer. Last week's meeting was also the first guided by a mediator.

The three-day meeting began with the government introducing a revised settlement offer, said Weisbeck.

The most significant move during the session, said Weisbeck, was the government's official removal of pay equity from the bargaining table, which occurred Nov. 11.

Late the same day, the government introduced a 64-page document detailing its effort at establishing a gender neutral reclassification of all government positions.

The union asked for, and was granted, time to study the document.

Several other issues remain outstanding, among them:

• job security

• use of casual employees

• nurses' health and safety risks

• pay rates the government has developed in its new job classification system

The next bargaining session is slated for Dec. 12 and 13, the earliest mediator Top Jolliffe is available.

During the interim, leaders of the negotiating teams will be meeting informally, said Weisbeck, another sign of the warming of relations between the sides.

Asked if there was any chance an agreement could be worked out at that time, Weisbeck said, "That's, definitely, the hope...we're so close, that, unless someone throws a monkey wrench into the works, we think we can probably hammer out a deal."

Any agreement reached at the bargaining table is subject to a vote of union members.