Member criticizes Nunavut teacher’s union flip-flop

SEAN McKIBBON

IQALUIT — An Iqaluit teacher says the Federation of Nunavut Teachers opened itself up to accusations of bargaining in bad faith when it recently back-tracked on a new wage and benefit deal it had negotiated with the territorial government.

“What credibility do we have now?” said John Maurice, a teacher at Iqaluit’s Nakasuk school. Maurice has pushed for a re-organization of the teachers union and even talked about setting up a different teachers’ union entirely.

In a Dec. 9 letter to its membership, the FNT central executive withdrew a recommendation that teachers ratify a newly negotiated collective agreement.

Maurice says this flip-flop by FNT negotiators could lead the Nunavut government to have little confidence in future negotiations.

“They’re going to say to us, ‘What guarantee do we have that you’re not going to do the same thing with a new agreement?'” Maurice said.

The agreement contained an 8.5 per cent wage increase, increases to teachers’ northern allowances, and increased money for principals and professional improvement.

But in the Dec. 9 letter, FNT president Donna Stephania reversed the union’s recommendation that members ratify that agreement, citing the Nunavut government’s recent announcement that it would hand out about $1 million in bonuses to recruit and retain nurses.

“We worked on the principal of equity among government working groups,” said Stephania. The government, she said, told her negotiating team that they were working with a limited pot of money and that bonuses for teachers just weren’t in the cards.

“Under equity bonuses ought to be considered by the government,” said Stephania.

“I think the issue of credibility is one that cuts both ways.” The announcement of the bonuses for nurses undermined the credibility of the government at the negotiating table, she said.

But John Maurice doesn’t buy the line that the nurses bonuses motivated the central executive’s change of heart.

“That’s a separate issue. It’s not even part of the nurses’ collective agreement,” he said.

He said it had more to do with how the agreement was being received by the union membership, and how a similar deal for teachers in the NWT had been rejected in a vote by members of the union that represents NWT teachers.

“I think they looked at the massive resistance the deal was getting in the west. It went down by something like 78 per cent. What a vote of non-confidence. Wouldn’t that be grounds for them to resign?” said Maurice.

“That’s absolutely not true,” Stephania said. The decision to change the union’s recommendation was based entirely on the nurses’ bonuses, she said.

Maurice said he thinks the FNT should have formed a stronger bargaining position, demanding the reinstatement of VTAs for teachers.

“People might say, ‘why are they complaining about 8.5 per cent?’ But you got to remember that most of us lost $10,000-$20,000 in the last round of bargaining,” said Maurice.

Stephania said reaction to the agreement from the FTN’s membership has been mixed, with some teachers accepting it as the best that could be expected under the current economic climate, to others being indifferent to it, while others did not like the deal at all.

The decision to accept or reject the agreement is still in the hands of the teachers, she said.

Nunavut eachers are scheduled to begin voting on the agreement January 17, with voting closing Jan. 21.

Stephania’s Dec. 9 letter to teachers said teachers might also be asked to take a strike vote if the agreement is rejected.

If the deal is rejected, Stephania said the union would ask the government to go back to the negotiating table. If the government does not want to go back to negotiations, then a mediator will be appointed to make recommendations on the collective agreement, she said.

Finance Minister Kelvin Ng has adopted a wait and see approach.

“We’re disapointed that they [the FNT central executive] have taken that position. Those negotiations were all done under good faith,” said Ng.

He said he wasn’t sure what the consequences would be for one of the parties to have negotiated in bad faith. However, the actions of both parties would be taken into consideration by a mediator if the negotiations came to that, he said.

“Obviously we’re hoping that they don’t reject the agreement,” he said.

Ng said the government believes the nurses’ bonuses to be an entirely separate issue from the teacher’s collective agreement.