Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (June 22/05) - The union representing two former workers at Jackfish Power Plant has filed grievances, saying they were fired for speaking out against safety violations.

Plant operators Denis LaBelle and Paul Ollerhead want their jobs back plus $15,000 from NWT Power Corporation for punitive damages.

Both men served as union representatives at the plant for the Union of Northern Workers before they were laid-off.

The crown corporation laid the men off in early May, citing a declining need for diesel-generated power from the Jackfish plant. Both LaBelle and Ollerhead had worked at NWT Power for about 15 years. They say they became targets for management harassment because of issues they raised over employee safety at Jackfish and the Snare River hydro dams, 150 km northwest of Yellowknife, where they say plant operators often worked alone in potentially dangerous situations.

Ollerhead said many times the only available help at Snare was an elderly cook.

"Down in some hole or up in a ladder at -40 C, we were saying, 'this is not for one person,'" said the past president of the union local.

"We weren't expecting someone to be standing over the guy's shoulder every two minutes, but at least have somebody available that you can call on."

He recounted one incident when several employees were on site at the Snare Dam and an accident left one man seriously injured.

Ollerhead wonders what would've happened had the man been by himself. Jackfish and Snare have been down to two plant operators since the May lay-offs.

There were 10 plant operators working there up until the late 1990s. Besides being vocal as the local union vice-president, LaBelle said he angered management further by telling Yellowknifer about a fuel spill at Jackfish last September. His public criticism of the spill lead to an official reprimand sent to him on Christmas Eve.

The company and union declined to comment on the men's grievances, citing confidentiality rules.