Yellowknife (Oct 29/04) - Don Dudar likes to say that unions created the 40-hour work week, but his own job -- union organizer for the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) -- doesn't offer such regular hours.

The North has only had it's own Northern-based organizers for the past year, since Dudar and Steve Petersen took on the job for the Union of Northern Workers.

"Union organizing is not very popular with bosses," said Jean-Francois Des Lauriers, PSAC's vice-president in charge of organizing nationally.

The organizers go into an un-unionized workplace to help the employees run a union drive. They also assist newly unionized workers in setting up their local.

Petersen says education is a large part of the job.

"With the North's large aboriginal population, we have to consider low literacy levels, translation issues, some misconceptions about unions that have been spread about by employers, and traditional cultural values," he said.

One of the projects that Petersen and Dudar have been working on over the past year has been getting workers at the Ekati diamond mine into PSAC. That posed special challenges because the work site is so remote.

"We couldn't leaflet outside the door," said Dudar. "Every time we held a vote, we had to have four meetings to get the day and night shifts on both two-week rotations."

The new Ekati local and employers BHP Biliton are preparing to exchange proposals in December.

Dudar and Petersen still have the diamond mines in mind, though.

"We're currently negotiating with Diavik for access for two one-week periods," said Dudar. He points to that as an example of how the process of organizing can vary.

"They prefer to negotiate, where at BHP they preferred to litigate."

Union organizers are also the front line for workers, whether unionized or not, who have a serious complaint about their employers. They prepare briefs and appear before the Worker's Compensation Board, the Labour Board and at unemployment insurance hearings.

They usually work between 60 and 80 hours a week.

"The hours are very sporadic when you're dealing with people who have to call you after working hours," said Petersen.

Dudar believes his work is important enough to justify the long hours.

"Without a union, the balance of power rests with the employer," he said.

Des Lauriers said union organizing has increased in the North in the past year because union numbers are dropping. PSAC has 11,000 members in the North. Canada-wide, 28 per cent of people are unionized, down from 38 per cent in the 1970s.

"There's power in numbers," Des Lauriers said. "The fewer you have, the less clout the others are left with."