Several Unifor workers from various Crown corporations participated in a picket in North Battleford Friday afternoon. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

LABOUR ACTION

Unifor members hit picket line as contract talks breakdown

Oct 4, 2019 | 5:59 PM

Unifor members working for several Crown corporations hit the picket lines Friday following a breakdown in contract negotiations between the union and province.

Workers at six Crown corporations and one Crown agency in Saskatchewan – SaskTel, SaskPower, SaskEnergy, SaskWater, DirectWest, SecurTek and the Water Security Agency – are on strike.

Unifor Local 2-S president Penny Matheson, who represents members who are SaskTel workers around the Battlefords, said the union is asking for a two per cent wage increase in 2019, 2020 and 2021. She made note how provincial MLAs received a 2.3 per cent increase in April.

The province has offered a five per cent increase over five years.

“We’re just asking for fairness and the basic cost of living,” she said. “We’re not interested in zeroes and we’re not interested in a five-year agreement.”

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She said it is a difficult situation for workers and said SaskTel hires a lot of part-time employees as well as contract workers, putting Crown workers who rely on regular work hours to make a living in a challenging position.

“We have Crown workers that have to use the local food bank to make ends meet,” she said. “It’s very bad. All we want is to have a fair wage increase.”

Matheson said in the meantime workers want to return to the bargaining table as soon as possible.

“All we need is for the government to give the ok that they are ready to bargain,” she said.

Unifor represents nearly 5,000 Crown employees. Essential services agreements and business continuity plans were set in place at all Crowns to ensure vital services continue in the event of a strike.

Jerry Dias, president of Unifor National, has said all the union is asking for is what is fair — increases consistent with the rate of inflation. He said since 2007, Unifor’s members have only got an 11-per-cent increase in their wages, while senior management has had a 107-per-cent increase.

He places the blame for the impasse on the provincial government and said the Crown bargainers have told him the government mandated the Crowns not offer any increases for the first two years.

Finance Minister Donna Harpauer said in an email to battlefordsNOW that the province hopes an agreement can be reached at the bargaining table in good faith.

“We believe that the employer offer of five per cent over five years respects the hard work of Crown employees while balancing the fiscal reality of our province,” she said.

— with files from 650 CKOM

—

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow