Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 12/01) - Members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada voted to take up the government's offer for a contract deal.

The agreement calls for across-board increases of 3.2 per cent retroactive to 2000, 2.8 per cent retroactive to summer of 2001 and 2.5 per cent effective next year.

The agreement will affect 350 workers in Northwest Territories and Nunavut and an additional 400 in the Yukon. The contract expires in 2003.

The Alliance serves 87,000 civil servants in Canada.

"The membership across Canada has stated where they stand on it, that it's an acceptable and fair contract," said PSAC representative Dolly Ablitt.

Repeated talks continued to produce nothing until the fall when two of the four groups reached a negotiated agreement. Those two tables recommended ratifying an agreement. The remaining two tables took "imposed" settlements to the membership.

They recommended rejection of the agreement but in the end received less voter approval by several percentage points than the negotiated terms. It still passed by huge margins.

PSAC members are divided in four groups according to their area of labour. Each voted independently on separate agreements but the lowest approval percentage was 79 per cent.

"When all the action happened on Sept. 11 it really changed where members were coming from," said Ablitt.

"People want to have security. They want to know when they will be working and how much they will be working for. It is not a time for uncertainty and with a strike there is always uncertainty," she said.

PSAC members protested with a series of "workless Wednesdays." That practice will now come to an end.