Workers ‘ticked off’
Saskatchewan Crown corp. employees hit picket lines
On the first day of picketing outside Saskpower’s Regina headquarters, Karen Thompson is feeling scared.
She’s a single parent. Her youngest son, Malachi, is marching with her in a matching orange vest. He’s taken a day off school to be with his mom as she strikes from her 15-year job at Saskpower.
Thompson said she wants Malachi to learn “what real life is all about.”
“He needs to know that the government doesn’t stand for unions,” she said. “It’s not fair that the government would reject our offers and say no, because they don’t realize there’s single parents out here, a lot of families out here that need the finances.”
Thompson, like the hundreds of other Unifor members who manned the picket lines on Friday’s morning shift, is getting just $300 a week in strike pay.
She thinks she can last about a month.
“It’s hard to live with the money that we get. But you know what, if I don’t do it I won’t have nothing,” Thompson said. “So I’m going to fight for what I believe in.”
Thousands of workers at seven Saskatchewan Crowns went on strike at 12:01 a.m. Friday after bargaining hit an impasse, with workers and employers far apart over wages.
Unifor members held a demonstration outside Sasktel’s Lorne Street building just before midnight to mark the countdown to the strike deadline.
Dave Kuntz, president of Unifor Local 1-S, said they came to lead a late shift of workers out of the Sasktel building at roughly the moment the strike began.
“Taking strike action, it’s a last resort and we have to do it,” he said. “We’re asking for fairness, we’re not asking for anything more.”
He then handed the mic over to NDP leader Ryan Meili, who came to support the demonstration along with four other NDP MLAS.
“I think you’re worth a hell of a lot more than zeros,” said Meili.
Unifor has rebuffed offers that include two years of zeros followed by increases of one per cent in year three, and either one or two years of two per cent raises to follow, depending on the table.
The union responded with a counter-offer calling for two per cent hikes in 2019, 2020 and 2021. It also calls for lump sum payments for any expired years in the contract amounting to the equivalent of two per cent.
Meili blamed the impasse on the government, a position the union has also taken throughout the dispute.
“I just want want you to know we’re going to be here with you all along the way,” said Meili.
Friday morning saw picket lines in front of Saskpower’s headquarters on Victoria Avenue, Saskenergy’s offices at the corner of Victoria Acenue and Broad Street, Sasktel’s headquarters on Saskatchewan Drive and, once again, the Lorne Street Sasktel building.
Aaron Lamontagne, a Sasktel employee of 13 years, expects the strike to last weeks or months, not merely days.
He can handle weeks. He doubts he can hold out for months. If the strike is still ongoing by then, he’ll look for a new job.
“We got a 19-month-old at home who just started daycare about two months ago, so it’s hard for that trying to deal with daycare now and both of us have no job,” he said.
Both he and his wife work at Sasktel, and they’re both on strike. She just got off maternity leave, so he’s had little chance to save. Strike pay isn’t enough to pay the bills.
“We’ll be going into debt,” he said. “We’ll have to use lines of credit.”
He said he voted for the strike, but that was “a long time ago.” Now he doesn’t want to be off work on a cold October morning at 8 a.m.
“It’s not nice standing in front of your job not being able to go to work not getting paid,” he said. “It’s not a good feeling.”
Despite their apprehensions, most of the striking workers who spoke to the Leader-post on Friday were strident about the fight ahead. Thompson said she works hard and is “ticked off” at what she’s being offered.
And as she marches with her co-workers, she feels a sense of solidarity.
“I’m really happy to be with them,” Thompson said, “because we all believe in the same thing.”