Coral Harbour Housing Authority workers vote Monday on new contract offer

Coral Harbour Housing Authority employees represented by the Nunavut Employees Union are set to vote Monday on a tentative agreement reached in October that would give them a new contract if approved.

A total of 14 housing authority employees are represented by the union with eight permanent and six casual employees.

In September, after three days of meetings negotiators for PSAC North, the NEU and the housing authority could not come to an agreement on a new contract. A strike vote was approved on Sept. 13.

The union and the housing authority reached a tentative agreement on Oct. 30, NEU announced the following day.

“We avoided a strike, we did avoid a strike. And we did reach a deal. And it was probably the best [deal] we got ever. So we’re happy and we’re just waiting to hear back from our members and see how they feel,” Jason Rochon, NEU president said in an interview Friday.

Members’ feedback so far indicates they are happy with the deal and Rochon believes members will vote to ratify the deal on Nov. 20.

Rochon declined to discuss the specifics of the tentative agreement until it is ratified by members.

The previous collective agreement expired on Mar. 31, 2021, while negotiations for a new contract began in November 2022.

After negotiations broke down in September, the housing authority moved to lay off all its casual workers who are represented by PSAC and the NEU, Rochon said at the time.

Rochon confirmed that the casual employees who were laid off in September have not returned to work. He declined to comment further on the situation, citing an ongoing complaint filed with Canada Industrial Relations Board against the housing authority.