‘Absolutely no interest’ in call for pay cut

Finance Minister SASKATOON Donna Harpauer’s admission that attempts to save hundreds of millions of dollars by imposing a 3.5-per-cent pay cut on public sector workers “doesn’t look promising” has been echoed by two of the province’s largest unions.

The Saskatchewan Governmental and General Employees’ Union (SGEU) and Service Employees International Union (SEIUWest) said this week that none of their local bargaining committees are expected to agree to the proposed compensation cuts.

“There is absolutely no interest in this … total compensation decrease,” said SEIU-West president Barbara Cape, whose union represents about 13,000 workers in education, health and other sectors, almost 85 per cent of whom are facing the wage rollback request.

“There’s a solid resolve across all of our bargaining units that they’re not going to agree to it,” added Bob Bymoen, president of SGEU, which represents around 18,000 public sector workers, the vast majority of whom will be without a contract by the end of next year.

Bymoen and Cape said virtually all of the public sector workers their unions represent will be negotiating or preparing to negotiate new collective agreements in the next 12 months.

Premier Brad Wall unveiled the proposed pay cuts ahead of the Saskatchewan Party government’s unpopular 2017-18 budget, which aimed to halve a $1.2-billion deficit. MLAs, political staff, and ministry and Crown heads have already accepted the cut.

Opposition to the rollbacks was strong from the outset, and resulted in the government halving — to $125 million from $250 million — its expected savings for this fiscal year. Last month, a SaskPower union became the first to formally reject the proposal.

While the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2067’s decision may not increase the confidence of other unions at the bargaining table, it certainly reinforces their position, said Saskatchewan Federation of Labour president Larry Hubich.

“It confirms what they’ve been saying — our members will not accept a 3.5-percent wage rollback,” said Hubich, an outspoken critic of the Sask. Party government whose organization represents around 100,000 people belonging to other unions in the province.

Harpauer was not available for an interview on Thursday, but government spokeswoman Kathy Young said in an email that the government’s plan to save money by reducing total compensation costs by 3.5 per cent has not changed.

The newly-appointed finance minister said earlier this week that “no decisions have been made” on whether intransigent unions could face layoffs.

Another possibility is that the government continue dipping into a contingency fund built into the budget, though the Finance Ministry reported in August that more than half of the $300-million fund had already been spent to keep the budget plan on track.