Yellowknife (Apr 28/06) - Western Arctic MP Dennis Bevington is in hot water with the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines.

The chamber is unhappy with Bevington's comments in a March letter to Union of Northern Workers president Todd Parsons.

Bevington praised the union's stand in negotiations with BHP Billiton, parent company of the Ekati diamond mine, which broke down April 4 and sent hundreds of workers to the picket line.

"For too long, in the diamond industry in the NWT, Northerners have simply accepted what has been handed to us," Bevington wrote.

"Your collective stand on these principled issues that govern your workplace is admirable."

That doesn't sit well with Lou Covello, president of the chamber, who accused Bevington of using "hackneyed trade union jargon." In a written response, the chamber defends Ekati's environmental record, agreements with First Nations, and hiring preferences for aboriginal and Northern workers.

"I thought he would have taken a much more even-handed approach," Covello said in an interview.

"We've had enough of that" in the wake of heated labour disputes at the former Giant Mine, Covello said.

During a speech to striking Ekati workers April 21, Bevington urged both sides to return to the bargaining table, but he also called on BHP Billiton to meet union demands on pay equity and seniority rights.

The company maintains it can't meet those demands because of impact benefit agreements signed with First Nations that ensure preferential hiring and job training for aboriginal workers.

"(BHP Billiton) operates in compliance with Canadian law and brings world-class standards of human resource and environmental stewardship as part of its corporate culture," Covello wrote.

Bevington said the Chamber of Mines' letter is "an overreaction."

"I want to support the people of the North," he said. "Sometimes I have an opportunity to support workers, sometimes I have an opportunity to support businessmen."

Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce president Steve Meister said BHP Billiton and many of Ekati's contractors are members of the Chamber of Commerce.

"We're concerned from a business perspective that this strike doesn't go on," Meister said.

"We are disappointed Mr. Bevington has waded into the strike issue and decided to let politics into it."

Meister called on both sides to return to the bargaining table.