Nunavut power workers delay strike vote

Nunavut Employees Union president Doug Workman says he’s not impressed with contract offers made by Qulliq Energy Corp. to its 120 unionized workers. The two sides are set to resume contract talks in August. (FILE PHOTO)

The union representing 120 workers at the Qulliq Energy Corp. says it will delay a strike vote while the two sides continue to negotiate a new contract.

The Nunavut Employees Union is seeking raises of five per cent per year over the next three years for QEC employees.

But two short rounds of negotiations yielded no agreement, prompting the union to call for mediation.

“We walked away from the table,” said Doug Workman, the NEU president. “We were pretty disappointed with the employer’s viewpoint.”

In an email, QEC spokeswoman Meghan McRae said the utility is reluctant to talk about specifics of the bargaining session this past spring.

“We do not believe that the negotiations in February and March ended in an impasse and we are set to return to the bargaining table at a date already agreed upon by both parties,” she said.

A May 3 letter from Hunter Tootoo, the human resources minister, urged the NEU to come back to the bargaining table.

Workman said negotiations will resume in August and he’s “cautiously optimistic” the two sides can reach a deal.

“You want to give somebody… an opportunity to come to the table and negotiate in good faith and hopefully negotiate a reasonable collective agreement,” he said.

Qulliq’s unionized workers have been without a contract since the last one expired Dec. 31, 2010.

The corporation is offering three different options, one with wage increases of two per cent per year over three years, and two with increases of two per cent per year in the first two years, and 2.5 per cent in the third year.

But each package also demands different sets of concessions from the union on overtime and leave. The company is also seeking concessions on isolated post allowances and other workplace issues.

QEC recently won an 18.1 per cent increase to power rates, which it sought in part to help cover a $22.7-million operating shortfall in 2010-11.

Workman said with that rate hike in hand, the utility can afford to share some of the revenue with its unionized workforce.

And he said the rate hike, widely condemned by businesses and municipal governments, also increases the cost of living for QEC workers.

“We don’t see any evidence that this [QEC] is a poor organization,” Workman said, pointing to Qulliq’s construction of a new office building near Iqaluit’s downtown.

“Frankly all we want is fair compensation for the work our members are doing. The cost of living in Nunavut, as we all know, has been increasing in leaps and bounds.”

But QEC has argued that it needed the rate hike to be able to fund capital improvements to Nunavut’s aging power plants, some of which are more than 40 years old.

“The rate hike is not relevant to the current bargaining issues,” said McRae, the QEC spokewoman.