Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 22/01) - Things are getting awkward for some of 4,000 GNWT employees belonging to the Union of Northern Workers.

Where they work in the same buildings as federal civil servants staging regular wage protests, they'll be forced to cross picket lines.

This, despite the fact that UNW members are automatically members of PSAC, the federal civil servant's union.

But a clause in NWT's Public Service Act prohibits UNW members from participating in any work stoppage while their collective agreement, which expires next March, is in place. Territorial employees honoring federal picket lines will face $1,000 fines.

"We can't take job action, it's illegal," says UNW President Barb Wyness.

"I think the Public Service Alliance of Canada workers who are doing these three days of strikes understand well that our contract means we have to cross."

Wyness says the airport is the only Yellowknife building she can think of in which members of both unions work.

PSAC spokesperson Debbie McLaughlin says her members are encouraging UNW to join picket lines during breaks and lunch.

PSAC's "Workless Wednesday" protests are designed to pressure the federal treasury board into making an offer more generous than six per cent raises over three years.