SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
United Steel Workers Local 8646, which represents multiple workplaces across the territory, voted unanimously on Thursday night to merge with USW Local 1207, out of Edmonton.

Tina Korycki, president of USW Local 8646, left, Maureen Jones, Local 8646 treasurer and Ray White, president of USW 1207, waited on Thursday for the results of a vote on whether to merge the United Steel Workers Local 8646 and USW Local 1207, out of Edmonton. The union voted unanimously to merge. - Jessica Davey-Quantick/NNSL photo

Local 8646 represents about 350 members, based in Yellowknife, Whitehorse, Inuvik and Hay River, working in jobs such as administration at the Yellowknife Education District No. 1, the Northern Territories Federation of Labour and Union of Northern Workers and airport security. The bulk of their members work for the Yellowknife Co-op and both Independent grocery stores in Yellowknife, which has made it difficult for Local 8646 to maintain an executive, something their constitution requires.

"It's hard because it's volunteer time," said Local 8646 President Tina Korycki. "The majority of the workers in our local are from the grocery stores, and a lot of the people in the grocery stores have more than one job, so their free time is not necessarily their free time. Their free time can be their other job or jobs. And I think that's part of what the issue is."

The merger will link the Yellowknife union with a much larger multi-employer local based in Alberta. Before the merger, Local 1207 was sitting at approximately 2,700 members.

"We have 26 different employers, 26 collective agreements from Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Lloydminster, High Level, we're all over (Alberta)," said Local 1207 president Ray White.

He says a larger, multi-employer union will be good for everyone.

"The bigger they get the more resources that you have to work with, and the better off you are," he said "Currently the Yellowknife local doesn't have any full-time people, and we have three full-time business agents and a full-time financial secretary for our local. It just makes sense that they can tap into some of those resources and share resources to make it more efficient and effective."

The new, merged union will represent around 3,000 workers, White says, adding the Alberta Union will also be able to provide expertise across different types of employment. Currently, White says Local 1207 represents lumber mills, long-term care facilities, and a french-fry factory.

"We're in every kind of industry that you can imagine," he said. "It's going to make it better as far as the Yellowknife local goes because we've got experience bargaining in different industries with different employers."

The larger union will be able to provide education, including training courses on union and labour rights and access to the Women of Steel group - a group that works to promote women's rights, says Korycki. But she says the merger won't leave Yellowknifers eclipsed.

"We want to make it a better place for workers, we want to help out the community," she said.

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