NTPC, NEU reach tentative wage deal

MICHAELA RODRIGUE
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Union and power company officials have struck a tentative three-year contract that, if passed, will give some Northwest Territories Power Corp. workers a 9 per cent pay hike.

The Nunavut Employees Union is recommending that about 50 workers within its NTPC bargaining unit ratify the deal.

Bargaining teams from the union and power company reached the proposed deal last week.

NTPC has agreed to give its plant superintendents, tradespeople and office administrators a 3 per cent raise each year effective Jan. 1, 1999 to Dec. 31, 2001.

Union members will also get their location payments upped by 10 per cent over the life of the contract.

The union didn’t manage to get vacation travel assistance returned to the package, but the union’s first vice-president, David Angrove, said the contract is the best they could get and should be accepted by union members.

“This is the best thing we could get out of them. We’re pleased because it does include a lot of increases across the board,” Angrove said.

“It’s a 9 per cent increase over three years, so you can’t really knock it. It’s better than the cutbacks we’ve been getting. The only thing we couldn’t get is VTAs back.”

The union had asked for a return of the popular vacation travel assistance benefit, but came up dry on the issue.

“You can’t draw blood from a stone,” Angrove said.

Angrove said that despite this most recent setback, VTAs will resurface at the bargaining table when the NTPC contract comes up for renewal.

The union is now preparing to negotiate a collective agreement for another bargaining unit. If it gets VTAs reinstated, NTPC will have to back down, he said.

If the deal is ratified, 22 casual workers who back up the plant superintendents will be given permanent positions and fall under the contract.

It’s the first three-year deal in NTPC’s history, and would give the company more stability, said Bill Braden, NTPC’s director of corporate development.

“What we appreciate is the term of the agreement and the stability it brings,” Braden said.

Braden added the new deal should also help the power company recruit and retain workers.

“We want to be competitive with the rest of the market in order to attract and keep employees. When it comes to the pay packet we want to be as competitive as anyone else,” Braden said.

The new deal will put NTPC in the “middle of the pack,” Braden said.;

“For now we’re satisfied we’re running a pretty good average,” he said.

The union plans to hold a ratification vote next month. It needs a vote of 50 per cent plus one in favor for the deal to be ratified.

The current collective agreement expired last December.