Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 21/99) - The Union of Northern Workers face a revolt within their membership as they sit down to hash out a new collective agreement with the NWT Power Corporation.

Of the 117 PowerCorp workers, 108 signed a petition which was submitted to legislature last week, expressing their dissatisfaction with the UNW and calling for changes in laws to allow them to seek alternative union representation.

Among the most vocal backers of the petition is Mike Mandeville, plant operator for the power corporation in Yellowknife and a member of UNW Local 16.

"It all started when I filed grievances with the UNW and was told to wait for an arbitration date," he said Monday. "Well, it's going on three years now, I don't have a date and it's obvious grievances aren't being dealt with in a timely manner."

Mandeville said the Yellowknife locals began feeling out the positions of Power Corp employees around the territory at Christmas -- and found widespread discontent.

"But instead of contacting us and holding a meeting to see if we can solve the problem, the union's chosen to be more confrontational," he said.

Mandeville said workers were a little surprised when Minister Charles Dent told Seamus Henry that the Supreme Court of Canada had ruled in favour of the GNWT when health workers challenged the same law in 1990. But Mandeville said Monday he had contacted the Canadian Labour Congress in Ottawa, who promised to review the situation.

Dent had also told Henry that the petition's 108 signatures did not constitute a majority of the corporations's total 217 workers. Henry pointed out that Dent had including Nunavut workers in his total and that there are only 117 unionized Power Corp employees in the West.

The pair further discussed the implications of the petition for Nunavut but Henry also requested expediency in dealing with legislative changes.

But the minister replied with caution. "Just the requirement for consultation and looking at how labour laws would have to change because of the implications in other areas of the public service this cannot be achieved very quickly," he said, "but the process has commenced to have a serious look at it."

Having come up from Fort Simpson to Yellowknife for this week's talks, UNW Local 13 President Wayne Leblanc said the bargaining team would concentrate on the bargaining.

"On these negotiations we stick together as a team," Leblanc said. "So no one is saying anything until we see what happens."