Crowns brace for strike as negotiations at impasse
‘This is a standoff,’ Unifor boss says as 4,500 prepare to walk
As some 4,500 Unifor members working at Saskatchewan’s Crown corporations poised to go on strike Friday morning, the union’s national president expressed disbelief the situation had come to this.
“This is a standoff,” Jerry Dias said in a fiery speech Thursday afternoon as media cameras rolled. “If there’s a dispute (Friday) morning — which it appears there will be — Scott Moe’s going to have to look at himself in a mirror and explain to himself how he can take a 2.3-per-cent wage increase and expect our members to take zero.”
Unifor reiterated that its members at seven Crowns were ready to strike on Friday at 12:01 a.m. if a tentative agreement couldn’t be reached. The strike will affect workers at Sasktel, Saskpower, Saskenergy, Saskwater, the Water Security Agency, and Sasktel subsidiaries Securtek and Directwest, all of which first began work-to-rule job action on Monday.
Earlier Thursday, Premier Scott Moe said he still hoped a strike could be avoided as the deadline loomed.
“We respect the right of our employees ... to exercise their right to strike,” said Moe. “But in saying that, we hope very sincerely that we’ll be able to get to some type of an agreement and avert action.”
No further bargaining had been scheduled before the deadline as of Thursday afternoon, making a full-scale walkout look increasingly likely. Dias said all members — some 3,000 of those employed at Sasktel — will hit the picket line Friday if it comes to that, but he still held out hope Thursday that it wouldn’t be necessary.
“We’re not asking for outrageous increases,” he said. “All we’re asking for are increases consistent with the rate of inflation.”
He said a deal could still be struck within minutes. “This is not complicated.”
The union maintained it has repeatedly tried to find a resolution but has been “rebuffed” by the provincial government and now has “no other option than a strike.”
Dias says the Crowns’ hands are tied by the provincial government, despite supposedly being “enthusiastic” about Unifor’s latest proposal.
“They can’t claim a hands-off approach while they have their hands all over this dispute,” he said of the provincial government.
Asked if the government is mandating wage freezes, Moe said the Crowns are negotiating within a framework and that the government feels their current offer — a five per cent increase over five years starting in year three — is fair.
Moe added that the salary increases for MLAS over the last five years have been “much less” than those received by Unifor members during that same time.
In a statement, Unifor said the union had recently offered to accept lump sum payments in lieu of a base wage increase in the expired years of their contract. “In the most recent offer, committees have also made offers to accept wage increases of two per cent in 2019, 2020 and 2021.”
The value of the lump sum would be a total of four per cent of a member’s salary over two years, according to Dias.
As the union prepared for the strike, so too did the Crowns.
Sasktel issued a series of news releases Thursday morning saying it would try to minimize the effect on customers by having our management team maintain services. “While Sasktel will do its best to continue to serve our customers, delays may be experienced as the primary focus will be on maintaining the networks and services for our customers,” the release added.
Essential services agreements are in place to ensure critical services like 911 are maintained.
Dias urged the premier to “get his head around” the situation, given that “for every day we’re on the picket line there will be less revenues to the Crowns and less revenues to the province.”
He contended the lost revenues during a strike would be more than what it would cost to fund the unions current proposed agreement. “So why a government would choose to lose more money and profitability in a day than it would cost to pay the increase makes no sense,” he charged.
“The question is, ‘Why is the premier provoking this dispute?’ ” said Dias who has been negotiating deals for 30 years.
There have only been two Crown sector strikes during the Saskatchewan Party’s tenure in government, at the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Agency in 2011 and Sask
Gaming in 2010. Sasktel last voted for a strike mandate in 2016, but job action didn’t result.
Workers there did strike in 1996. It lasted three weeks, according to Unifor.
Unifor has long rejected offers that contain two years of flat wages for members at each of the seven bargaining tables, followed by two or three years of hikes. The government offered late last week to add yet another year of two-per-cent salary increases. That too was rejected by the union.
Saskenergy workers have been without a contract since early 2017, while Saskpower Unifor members saw their contracts expire in December 2016. Saskwater’s agreement was up a year later, in December 2017. Sasktel’s lasted until March of this year.
Finance Minister Donna Harpauer signalled on Saturday, after talks broke down, that the Crown employers are not considering any new monetary requests from Unifor.
Most Crowns reported little effect on services this week as a result of the work-to-rule campaign. But that’s expected to change come Friday in the absence of an 11thhour deal.
— with files from Thia James awhite-crummey@postmedia.com