Northwest Territories
Public Service Workers
Call Off Strike Action
and Enter Binding Mediation
The Union of Northern Workers, in a
February 10
press release, announced that two days of mediation failed to
produce a
tentative agreement between the union representing
over 4,000
public service workers and the Government of Northwest
Territories
(GNWT). The union and GNWT did agree to submit their outstanding
issues to binding recommendations from a mediator appointed by
the
government.
 According to the
union, the
decision to agree to binding mediation comes from some headway
made
during the weekend's mediation. Wages, the term of the agreement
and
issues around job security remain outstanding. Workers went into
the
weekend talks with demands for wages that allow them to keep
ahead of
the increases to the cost of living and for the creation of more
full-time jobs with benefits and a pension plan, in opposition to
the
reality of workers often working for years as relief workers with
no
access to benefits and a pension plan. Workers also consider the
government's demand for a five year collective agreement too
long.
Earlier, on February 8, the GNWT
voted 11
to 6 with one abstention to reject a Yellowknife MLA's
motion
calling on the territorial government to move to binding
arbitration.
The union had itself approached the government with a proposal to
settle the dispute with binding arbitration but the government
flatly
rejected it
under the hoax of letting the negotiation process unfold. The
union
pointed out that the government's offer was unacceptable to the
workers
three years ago and remains so today. Why the government agreed
to
binding mediation at this time remains to be seen but workers are
calling upon the mediator to address their main demands and
concerns.
In the period leading up to the cancelled strike,
planned for February 11, the GNWT was extremely provocative
sending documents directly to workers' homes misrepresenting its
offer
and openly calling upon public service workers to cross the
picket
lines during the strike.
The GNWT claims to show respect for public
service
workers who provide vital services and value that the people of
the
territories depend upon for their living but instead constantly
misinforms the public as to the economic nature of public service
work
and social programs. It posits public sector work as valueless
and
government payment for
the capacity to work of public sector workers as a debilitating
cost
that drains public funds from infrastructure projects currently
under
consideration. This unscientific nonsense must be denounced and
rejected as self-serving, corrupt and in the service of a
financial
oligarchy that views the north and its resources only for the
great
amount of social
value it can expropriate from what workers produce.
Workers are both the builders of infrastructure
and
creators of the value it contains; they are the producers of
social
wealth through public services and social programs. They have a
just
claim on the value they create in all sectors of the economy at a
modern standard of living acceptable to workers themselves.
Workers'
Forum joins
the public service workers of the Northwest Territories in
demanding
that their just demands and concerns be addressed.
This article was published in
Number 5 - February 14, 2019
Article Link:
Northwest Territories: Public Service Workers
Call Off Strike Action
and Enter Binding Mediation
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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