האגודה הישראלית לחקר יחסי עבודה

“We’re at an in-between period now where they can legally goon strike at any time,” said Happy Valley-Goose Bay Mayor Jamie Snook. “We’rehopeful they will reconsider our offer and come back to negotiating.”

While the strike mandate has passed the workers are not onstrike as of yet. Snook said they are hopeful there will be no disruption ofservices coming into the winter and that the two sides can work out anagreement.

The issue that has led to the impasse is wages. Unionizedwages account for about 40 per cent of the budget in Happy Valley-Goose Bay andSnook said in the last collective agreement, signed last year, the workers gotan 11.5 per cent increase over three years.

“Now they’re back wanting quite a bit more again, whichwould put us over 20 per cent over six years,” he said. “We’re of the viewthat’s unsustainable and as a council the number one thing we hear in thecommunity as feedback is cost of living and one of the few things we can do tokeep the cost of living low in town is keeping the mill rate as low as possible.”

He said in the municipal budget last year council reducedthe mill rate by 21.9 per cent and they don’t want to see any increase in taxesbecause of the union negotiation.

He said in the last negotiation there was a lot ofdiscussion over what employees make at Muskrat Falls but the latest offer theTown made was competitive for government employees.

“We know through our analysis with the union that employeewages at the Town are very competitive and their benefit package is verycompetitive,” he said. “We’re very comfortable saying that they’re fairly paidand through the last two negotiations they’ve been compensated fairly.”

He said they’re trying to reach a fair deal for everyone inTown and if the wages aren’t kept in check, they have no choices but to raisetaxes.

The process of working out this agreement has been ongoingsince last fall, with a provincially appointed conciliator in place sinceJanuary.

“We’re quite disappointed this hasn’t been negotiated yet,”he told TC Media. “We hopes we would reach an agreement by December 31 of lastyear and here we are nine months in this year with the agreement lapsed andstill haven’t an agreement. It certainly hasn’t been from any lack of trying onthe Towns part, everyone wants to work under conditions where a collectiveagreement in place.”

The Town has reached out to the union again last week andhope to get the issue solved before any strike action takes place.