Iqaluit makes new offer to workers

DENISE RIDEOUT

IQALUIT — A glimmer of hope is breaking through the current labour stalemate in Iqaluit.

City administrators have laid out an offer for a cost-of-living benefit for its 80 municipal workers.

City officials hope the offer will put an end to the 24-day lockout.

On May 8, the city council met behind closed doors to come up with some sort of contract offer that would appeal to the employees.

During contract talks the city said it would be willing to negotiate the cost-of-living benefit but never stated how much money it was willing to commit.

Now the city has come up with a new package.

“We defined in numbers what the increases would be,” Iqaluit Mayor John Matthews said.

“The reason we defined it is to get things happening again, to get them back to work and to look after the roads and the garbage,” he said.

Iqaluit’s roads have been deteriorating, garbage has been piling up and residents have been running out of water since the lockout began on April 17.

Specific details of the city’s new contract offer won’t be released to the public until union members have a chance to see them.

But Matthews did say, “It’s a very fair and attractive increase.”

“It’s a very fair and attractive increase.”

— John Matthews, Iqaluit’s mayor

Matthews said the benefits, along with a $1.6 million increase to the regular payroll, should please employees.

“People like to work for the town because of the benefits. And here we are giving them a substantial increase to those benefits,” he said.

Union leaders say they’re pleased by the move to end the lockout.

John Sullivan, the union negotiator for the contract dispute, said he’s ready to talk business with the city.

“We’re willing to start negotiating. One of the problems we’ve had with this employer is that all they’ve done is give us ultimatums. They’ve never really been negotiating with us at all,” Sullivan said.

He said the workers want to see a contract that deals with wages, job classification, retroactive pay and the cost of living.

The employees are anxious to get back on the job as well, Sullivan said.

“We’d like to get the services back to the people of Iqaluit as soon as we could. Right now we’re prohibited from doing that because the employer has locked us out.”

Meanwhile, the federal court has issued an order requiring municipal employees to provide water-delivery services as set out in the city’s essential-services agreement with the union.

Last week the city asked the Canadian Industrial Relations Board to file an order with the court regarding the essential services. The federal board deals with conflicts that arise between an employer and its workers during contract negotiations.

“They realize the difficult situation we have here,” the mayor said.

If employees don’t carry out these services, Matthews said the city will file for an injunction to enforce the court order.