SaskTel employees who are members of Unifor begin walking the picket line at 12:01 a.m. in Regina on Friday, October 4th. Picture from Unifor’s Twitter account.
(Files from Drew Postey)
At midnight on Friday, close to 5,000 Unifor members at six crown corporations and one crown agency officially went on Strike in Saskatchewan.
This comes after a tentative agreement was not yet reached between the crowns and the union. And according to Unifor, the bargaining process has been made more difficult by the crowns proposing wage freezes.
Employees had been taking part in a work-to-rule campaign since Monday.
It is 12:01 in Regina and the first workers are walking off the job as part of our province wide strike for wage fairness. #canlab #skpoli pic.twitter.com/xdm59peeek
— Unifor Canada (@UniforTheUnion) October 4, 2019
Unifor National President Jerry Dias said when it comes to the wage proposals, orders are coming from the top.
“These are crown corporations that made $400-Million, and you’ve got the Premier saying ‘sorry, you can’t offer anybody anything,’ when he himself took a 2.3% wage increase,” Dias said. “This is just absolutely foolish,” he added.
Dias said according to an Angus Reid poll, most Saskatchewan people believe what the union is proposing is reasonable.
“We’ve offered inflation protection, period,” Dias said. “We’ve said for the last two years we’ll take the equivalent of a four percent lump-sum payment, which is just inflation protection, and then we proposed two percent a year for the next three years, which is strictly keeping up with the rate of inflation,” said Dias.
Dias said MLA wages have gone up between 25% and 30% since 2006.
“If you take a look at our members in the last 12 years, they have had wage increases of 11%,” Dias said. “I think that’s what’s frustrating everybody, is that our wage increases in the last 11-12 years haven’t even kept up with inflation,” added Dias.
Unifor members working for the crowns get paid through their profits according to Dias, not through tax dollars.
Other issues surrounding job security are also impacting talks.
Read below to find out how services will be effected during job action;
SaskPower says most of their striking employees are in administrative support or call centres, so any power outages will be restored by regular line technicians. The customer service line will be answered, but it may take longer than usual.
They are also asking customers to use the MyAccount feature to view and pay bills.
SaskEnergy is also asking customers to use the MyAccount feature and say the biggest impact to customers will be to those making inquiries to their customer service line. You are asked to e-mail or leave a message which will be returned ASAP.
Service technicians are considered essential, so the 24/7 emergency line will still operate and emergency services will happen.
However, line or meter installations to new homes or businesses won’t occur and there will be no regular construction work done by employees.
SaskTel says all stores will be closed because of the labour disruption, and any changes to personal plans must be made online.
The company adds they won’t be activating any new home services or transfer services during the strike, and will not activate any new business services with the exception of wireless.
