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Labour congress throws weight behind union

Jason Unrau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jun 14/06) - Picketing aurias diamond retailers and taking striking mine workers on a cross-Canada tour to raise awareness of the union's battle with BHP Billiton are among organized labour's next moves, according to Canadian Labour Congress president Ken Georgetti.

NNSL Photo/graphic

Northern Territories Federation of Labour president Mary Lou Cherwaty, right, joins Canadian Labour Congress president Ken Georgetti, who was in town to speak about the CLC support of striking Ekati mine workers, at a Friday press conference held at Public Service Alliance of Canada's Yellowknife office. The two groups are supporting the striking Ekati diamond workers. - Jason Unrau/NNSL photo


"(BHP) is not bargaining in good faith. They are using threats and intimidation and it's disrespectful to every worker in Canada, every citizen in Canada," he said at a Friday press conference at the Public Service Alliance of Canada's Yellowknife office.

Georgetti was in town to show congress' solidarity with striking workers, now in their ninth week off the job.

He accused BHP Billiton of using "scab labour," a charge the company has denied since the strike began. The company says more than 40 per cent of its collective bargaining employees have returned to work at Ekati mine.

Georgetti highlighted tactics the labour congress would employ to support Ekati strikers.

In addition to picketing aurias diamond retailers and the plan to take some strikers around the country, Georgetti is asking the congress' three million Canadian members to boycott produced diamonds.

Likening the action to the United Farm Workers' 1960s boycott of table grapes in America, Georgetti was confident the diamond boycott would have an impact.

When Yellowknifer questioned the comparison of a diamond boycott with one for the four year table grape campaign, in particular the relative cost of each and the potential amount of lost BHP sales a labour congress boycott on diamonds would ultimately have, Georgetti called the query fatuous.

"Our members probably purchase more diamonds than the average Canadian because they make good wages," he said.

Three issues separate the union and BHP Billiton, according to the UNW and Public Service Alliance of Canada. Two are disputed clauses in the tentative collective agreement. The first is for mandatory union membership that BHP wants removed from the agreement but PSAC maintains was agreed to and signed off on back in August 2005.

The second is a clause BHP added to the agreement during negotiations that it maintains will protect its bargaining member employees who crossed the picket line from penalties from the UNW.

According to PSAC, this clause was not in the original section that the union and company also signed off on in 2005.

The third is a BHP demand that the union take the company's May 30 "final offer" to its membership for a ratification vote by mail-in ballot.

"They are trying to meddle internally with the union," said Parsons, who along with Nunavut and NWT Federation of Labour president Mary Lou Cherwaty joined Georgetti at the Friday press conference. "They seem to be able to come up with some concoction to prevent settling this thing."