Iqaluit MLAs urge housing authority, union to resume talks
Month into labour dispute, union says company wasting money on replacement workers, food allowances
Thirteen Iqaluit housing workers have been on strike since March 17. Currently, the Iqaluit Housing Authority is not returning to the bargaining table, Nunavut Employees Union president Jason Rochon said. (File photo)
Two of Iqaluit’s MLAs are urging the Iqaluit Housing Authority and the union representing its striking employees to get back to the bargaining table.
The 13 workers represented by the Nunavut Employees Union went on strike March 17 and were locked out two days later by the housing authority.
Now one month into the labour dispute, the union has complained the company refuses to negotiate.
On Tuesday, Iqaluit-Tasiluk MLA George Hickes said that while he has no role in the bargaining, he believes negotiations need to resume.
“I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to get an agreement done,” Hickes said, citing housing as an important issue in Iqaluit.
Iqaluit-Sinaa MLA Janet Pitsiulaaq Brewster told Nunatsiaq News she is “100 per cent” behind union members receiving wages that help them catch up to inflation, and that give them rates similar to Government of Nunavut workers and the city’s private sector.
“I strongly urge the leadership at the Iqaluit Housing Authority to return to the bargaining table immediately, to work toward a fair and competitive settlement,” Brewster said.
“Both sides need to get back together to explore options to end this dispute.”
Premier P.J. Akeeagok, who is the MLA for Iqaluit-Niaqunnguu, was travelling to Kugluktuk and not available to comment, his press secretary Beth Brown told Nunatsiaq News.
In an interview Tuesday at the picket line on Sivumugiaq Street near the airport, NEU president Jason Rochon told Nunatsiaq News that settling on a contract now would save the housing authority money in the long run.
The NEU is a member of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. In Iqaluit, on April 6, PSAC national executive vice-president Sharon DeSousa told Nunatsiaq News the housing authority had already spent $100,000 to fly in replacement workers during the strike.
A housing authority spokesperson did not respond at the time to either confirm or deny that claim.
“They don’t want to pay local workers the same as they’re paying southerners,” Rochon said Tuesday.
He added that the housing authority is paying replacement workers a $60-a-day food allowance — something the employees were never given. Rochon didn’t identify the source of that information.
The Iqaluit Housing Authority did not respond to Nunatsiaq News’ request for comment on Tuesday.
The union has said the workers are striking for higher wages, compensation for speaking Inuktitut, and to preserve benefits for maternity or paternity leave where the company is seeking concessions.
Rochon said he’s disappointed that Lorne Kusugak, the territory’s minister responsible for the Nunavut Housing Corporation, as well as local politicians haven’t been more vocal in urging the housing authority to return to the bargaining table.
Michael Courtney, the ministerial political adviser to Kusugak, reiterated Tuesday that Kusugak will not be doing interviews regarding the labour dispute.
Courtney said Kusugak does not want to interfere with negotiations or to be seen as setting a precedent for his involvement in future talks.
There goes Nunavut 3000. Dead. There’s no way it can happen without the support of the Housing Authorities in every community. How much good will is there between the workers in all the Housing Authorities and the Government, due to this situation? None. Everyone wants Nunavut 3000 to be a success. Everyone, except the GN. If the GN wanted it to succeed, their partners would not be treated this way.
Sill funny that there has been no uproar from public housing tenants seeing a disruption in service? Oh wait that is because they have probably improved with the qualified “scab labour”
Also last time I checked the LHOs don’t do construction of new projects.. Didn’t see them having much of a role in Nunavut 3000s other then taking on and maintaining ( or not maintaining) new units)
What do the housing authorities have to do with nunavut 3000? They can’t even do basic maintenance and upkeep, do you really think they’ll have any part in building 3000 houses?
After the last federal budget was announced, “Nunavut 3000 died on the table.
Nothing to do with the housing associations.
PJ made announcements without any funding commitment.
LHOs have absolutely no involvement in new housing construction. They aren’t involved at all until final completion.
Nunavut 3000 will fail because of the partnership with NCC. NCC is an absolute mess of a company. They still haven’t hired a single project manager for Nunavut 3000. They haven’t even chosen a project management software for it.
For Nunavut 3000 by 2030 is 7 years to complete, which means they would need to build 428 housing units per year!
How does the Housing Minister not know that negotiations broke down? Collect a fat pay for nothing. Why can’t he push IHA back to the table. Silent as always.
Housing Minister hiding. He could say no to SCABS. Gross behaviour.
Why? The people you’re calling names are actually qualified to do the work, unlike the striking “Housing Maintainers”. The entire “Housing Maintainer” trade is an absolute joke. It’s basically just a bunch of unskilled labourers who might know how to unclog a drain or swap a lightbulb.
Stop assuming because this group of workers are inuk they aren’t qualified. Have you seen the qualifications. Stop siding with oppressors and learn.
Do you have a list of how many of these workers are Redseal certified ? If so Please share . Genuinely curious
And/or related to some board members of the Local Housing Board.
The “SCAB” labour is qualified labour….. the HMS and OBM trades are really just Cracker Jack trades…. I think having the southern labour free from union restraint and mandatory lunch breaks, second breakfast break, 3 coffee breaks and any other excuse to not work… is probably putting out a higher level of service.
Since when do employers use concession language in negotiations around maternity and paternity leave. Welcome to Nunavut
Inuit still not getting paid to talk Inuktitut SMH
Quebecers still not getting paid to talk french SMH
??
What will come first will NHC get a clue or will the Leafs win a round? The struggles continue and both need new management.
Systemic Racism sucks! Is the minister going to stay silent on the mess?
Everytime someone doesn’t do what I want it’s a “sYsTeMiC rAcIsM” !
100% racism shouldn’t be a thing.
We see racism everyday.
All the racism all day long. Deny racism exist, go ahead.
It still baffles me as to why the union will not reveal how much of an increase the members are seeking. With the current potential strike in the south, they have revealed what they are looking for? And if these guys in Iqaluit do reveal the %’s, they should also reveal all benefits that they are seeking. We the public want the whole story. Something smells fishy here.
Please wait until after all the old work orders are caught up before bringing the strike to an end. People deserve to have their home repairs done before these members get back to doing what ever they were doing prior to the strike.
senior management should all be scrapped …. what a disgrace
I would be interested to know… people that live in Iqaluit that rely on IHA… how is the service with the scab workers? how many jobs are getting done? and in what time frame?
How much worse is it with the Scab workers?
It is MUCH better with the “scab” workers. Funny how they do much better work, and all people like you can do is call them names. Grow up.
Mean While the NU Premier is out visiting his brother over in the western Arctic doing his popular photo opportunity…maybe that’s what he thinks his job is, travelling to get as many photo ops? Does the Housing Minister care about the Local housing strike? He does not even live and work in Iqaluit as he’s enjoying and loving living in a free public Housing in Rankin…day dreaming of somehow 3000 houses magically appearing out of thin air. Glad this will now only last for 3 more years and be replaced with a government that cares for whole of Nunavut and not just for own personal benefit.
He should do a photo with the striking workers. That would be better than visiting a brother or hunting on GN dime. Other than photo opps, what does he do. Is the GN the same as QIA? Come on premier start working for the people of Nunavut like you said you would. As of now the only people benefitting have been people close to you and your inner circle advisors family members.
Minister of Housing is living rent free in public housing in Rankin as his aged allows him to, only pays for electricity bill monthly which is highly subsidized.
I commend George Hickes for speaking up . I wish I can say the same for Courtney and Kusugak but they prefer to stay quiet and wait for their fat cheque end of the day to pay for their retirement back in Rankin and Philippines.
Rent scale within Nunavut is cap, depending on household income, size of the unit, condition of it also . You might not get anything to cover the annual cost of maintaining each unit especially if one tenant is paying $60.00 a month compared to a couple who has income and is paying $1800.00 etc .
Local Housing in Iqaluit is in deficit and has been for a long time, they want to recover from it, the Manager needs to be sure that the Tenant Relations Officer is diligent in recovering rental arrears, following up and scheduling with Rental Officer. If all fails evict the tenants for not following up with the payment agreement.
Manager needs to put their foot down with Maintenance in not recording properly for inventory, follow up with customer who have not paid for a part etc .
It’s the employees rights for an increase and not their fault for the deficit you’re in.
This article calls this a “strike” but this is actually a lockout not a strike. Iqaluit Housing Authority (GN) locked-out employees and now has paid over $100,000 on replacement workers/scabs.
We shouldn’t forget Iqaluit Housing Authority (GN) initiated this whole situation.
https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/iqaluit-housing-authority-set-to-lock-out-unionized-employees/
Nope. The union tabled strike notice, and IHA responded in-kind.
IHA has made clear what they’ve proposed. Union won’t reveal their demands. There’s only one reason that the union wouldn’t reveal their demands: They’re asking for something absolutely insane, and revealing that would lose all public support for the strikes.
Replacement workers are doing a much better job than IHA labourers could ever do. They should all be fired, and the replacement workers should be made permanent.
Housing is so messed up in Nunavut. NHC, IHA, a Housing Minister that can’t say it’s time to work together and get a deal done.
Ministers not wanting to pay workers they are responsible Sibley for an Inuktitut language bonus and making it difficult for workers to get parental leave, sick leave etc ne to resign. This is pathetic. Remember the politicians come election time that did nothing for 4 years but cause more problems.
Ministers not wanting to pay workers they are responsible for an Inuktitut language bonus and making it difficult for workers to get parental leave, sick leave etc need to resign. This is pathetic. Remember the politicians come election time that did nothing for 4 years but cause more problems.
Good morning Iqaluit!
It’s time to put some pressure on Minister Kusugak. I don’t think it’s good enough for him to just hide from this, say nothing or do nothing.
If he thinks it’s ok for these workers to make concessions, I would ask him to do the same, which would be a huge challenge. If you look at the annual published ministerial expenses for travel and housing from 2008 on, he was almost always taking a healthy lead for travel and housing expenses. Slam dunk that! Boast about your athletic prowess there, lol…some budget speech that was.
Anyways, the reports are there; I encourage you to look if you want to see excess. After you do, you’ll laugh at the idea of him or anyone else expecting these workers to make concessions—apples to oranges. You have people living high on the hog versus people trying to make ends meet. The Minister hiding and being absent is unacceptable. Come on, Lorne!
I’m hearing people are being approached already to run against him. I’m OK with that!
But what’s the point if he’s this checked out he ain’t running again
So many Inuit work for housing and they work so hard to keep them down. IQ principles means we should work together. Wake up Lorne and be present or do us a favor and quit.
Treating humans like this needs to stop. Be kind.
The new DM doesn’t even know what he’s doing. Firing good people for no reason, promising things he can’t keep, treating the housing corp staff like crap. Everyone quit because he’s too buddy buddy with the minister and gets away with everything. Too busy focusing on useless things rather than doing his job and a poor job at that.
100% agree! It’s no wonder they have so many job postings right now since Eiyrn because the DM!!! Housing Corp can’t even maintain the current units they have, they expect us to believe they’re going to make 3000 new ones?! Who are they kidding. Maybe Minister Kusugak and Eiryn should try living in our housing to see what it feels like and pay high rent to live in an unhealth box! Bring back the good people and get rid of these ones, problem solved!
Where is Eiryn Devereaux, the president of NHC, in all of this mess?
Where is the minister of NHC, George Kusagak, in all this?
Who is responsible for the decision to bring in scabs and not pay an Inuktitut language bonus. Who decided to provide housing for southern workers and a $60 food allowance a day but none of those things for Local workers. Just let us know who the racist decision maker is.
If the “scabs” are accomplishing more and “gooder” than the striking “maintenance workers”….
Keep the “scabs” get rid of the “maintenance” employees (?)
IHA stopped answering the phone and hasn’t done any work in my housing since the strike.