Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 18/99) - The NWT Teachers' Association has advised its government membership that a strike vote will be held this fall.

In making the announcement Tuesday, association President, Pat Thomas said the negotiating teams are too far apart on the priority issues identified by the membership.

"A strike is one of the options we have to consider and prepare for if the members are unhappy with the employer's post-mediation offer," she said. "It goes without saying that we want a negotiated settlement without job action."

The current contract expires Aug. 31 and affects some 430 teachers across the NWT, who are represented by the association and employed by the government through four school divisions -- the Beaufort Delta, the Deh Cho, Sahtu and South Slave. Yellowknife teachers are employed by the city's Catholic and public school boards.

Negotiations for a new government membership agreement began this spring, but the association announced last week it was requesting an end to bargaining and the help of a mediator.

Thomas said that the association has submitted its choice of mediators, but that none has yet been agreed on. She gave the same reason for announcing the strike vote as in calling for mediation -- to let the membership know what the status of bargaining is before school lets out for the summer.

"We have to advise our members," she said. "We can't just dump this on them (with short notice)."

Thomas said the decision to call for a strike vote is part of the bargaining process.

"It's part of what happens for us to be prepared," she said. "But we will proceed with mediation, and if the government likes what it sees and the members too, then that's that."

Thomas said once the two sides agree on a mediator, that mediator will set the schedule for talks -- which may not proceed until classes resume in August.

Sylvia Haener, the government's director of labour relations and compensation, also said the vote call doesn't mean the GNWT is finished bargaining.

"There's still room for negotiations and hope through the help of a mediator," she said.

Haener said there's never been a teacher-strike in the NWT, and that teachers only gained the right to strike in 1996. She said the government has yet to present its own proposals for mediator but expects the two sides to agree on one to take place in the next couple weeks.

Thomas identified bargaining priorities as including the recovery of benefits lost in the current contract and an improvement in working conditions. Haener said raises have been discussed but added she would not provide details.

With Yellowknife's Catholic teachers having recently concluded what was described as a successful bargaining agreement and taking into account the current teacher-shortage, Thomas said she hopes the government teachers can achieve an equally positive contract.