SENDING A MESSAGE
Up to 2,000 strikers, supporters rally in city to demand province return to table
As many as 2,000 striking Unifor members and their supporters march downtown on Saskatchewan Drive past some Crown corporation buildings during a ‘Rally of Fairness’ on Friday aimed at pressuring the province to return to the bargaining table.
Chants, music, cheers and supportive horn honks set the scene Friday morning when as many as 2,000 striking Crown workers and their supporters flooded downtown Regina streets.
Dubbed by Unifor the “Rally of Fairness,” strikers bused in from Saskatoon and other Saskatchewan locations, joining Regina colleagues in a rally and march that began with several short speeches in City Square Plaza before taking to the streets outside Saskpower, Saskenergy and Sasktel offices for further rallying cries.
“We’re here to send a message to the premier,” Chris Macdonald, Unifor’s assistant to the national president, told reporters. Referencing a trade mission by Premier Scott Moe and several officials to Japan and Korea this week, he added, “He’s away, overseas, while 5,000 families this Thanksgiving are on strike because he’s implemented a zero-per-cent wage freeze on them.”
Friday marked one week since the strike began by workers represented by Unifor at seven Crowns. Scott Doherty, executive assistant to Unifor’s national president, said the rally acted as a morale-booster for impatient strikers but, more importantly, was intended as a message to the province.
“People are obviously tired of being on the picket line and so we’re trying to boost morale, but at the same time, we’re trying to send a message to the Moe government to get back to the table,” he said. “That’s the real message here is come back to the table, bargain a fair deal and get our members back to work.”
Throughout the rally, members engaged in back-and-forth chants of, “What do we want?” “Fair deal.” “When do we want it?” “Now,” as well as, “Two-point-three — it’s good enough for Moe, it’s good enough for me.”
The reference reflects the 2.3-per-cent cost-of-living wage increase Saskatchewan MLAS received this year. The province has argued that Crown workers have actually received more in raises, on average, than the 3.9 per cent MLAS have had over the past five years.
To cheers from the crowd, Dave Kuntz, president of Unifor Local 1-S, told members, “this is about fairness,” whether about mental health conditions, contracting out or wages.
“We know what fairness is,” he said. “We know cost of living is a fair benchmark for fairness. Zeros don’t cut it. Zero is a wage rollback in my mind ... When they hold back wages, give you zeros, especially when the Crowns are strong, it is wrong. They need to come back to the table and talk to us. They need to come and treat us fairly.”
Kuntz added Unifor intends to “put the pressure on day after day after day until they talk to us, until they come out and treat us fairly and bring us fair language and fair money.”
Following the speeches, crowds followed a truck blaring music — some carrying a decided message, such as Worth It by Fifth Harmony — to the downtown offices of Saskpower, Saskenergy and Sasktel.
Crowds waved up at windows and cheered as numerous passing motorists showed support by honking or occasional pedestrians by applauding.
City police cleared the way for the march, blocking lanes of traffic to allow strikers to pass. No problems seemed to occur, although one police officer could be heard advising a driver about the fact Unifor had secured a parade permit for the event.
Unifor has rejected offers that included two years of zeros to be followed by increases of one per cent in the third year, then one or two years of two per cent increases, depending on the table. The union’s counter-offer included two-per-cent wage hikes in 2019, 2020 and 2021, as well as lump sum payments for expired years in the contract amounting to the equivalent of two per cent.
The dispute hit added turbulence on Monday when Unifor members blocked a Sasktel call centre, then talked about — and later backed away from — a backto-work plan that resulted in the corporation stating it would respond with a lockout. On Thursday, Unifor members blocked managers from entering a service centre east of Regina that Saskenergy described as vital to its ability to respond to gas emergencies in the city.
Doherty warned the province can expect the situation to heat up even more next week if talks don’t resume in what the union feels is a constructive way.
“We’ve done a number of actions over this week that you guys are aware of, and those actions are going to escalate over the next week if we don’t get back to the bargaining table,” he said.
He remained vague when pressed by reporters on what sort of action he meant, stating only, “I think you know what we’re talking about.”
On Thursday, a tentative deal was reached between Unifor Local 820 and the Water Security Agency (WSA). The 140 Unifor members at WSA returned to the job on a work-to-rule basis. An upcoming ratification vote will determine whether they abandon job action.
Both Doherty and Macdonald said on Friday they aren’t pleased with the offer made to the WSA, and will advise against accepting it.