Union boss: We’ll organize Nunavut mines, private workplaces

The national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, Nycole Turmel, says her union wants to organize private sector workplaces throughout Nunavut, including mine sites.

Turmel passed through Iqaluit last weekend to attend the annual general meeting of the Northern Territories Federation of Labour.

Over the weekend, she and Mary Lou Cherwaty, president of the federation, issued statements in support of about 400 PSAC members who launched a strike against BHP Billiton’s Ekati Mine on April 7, over seniority rules, wages and issues affecting aboriginal employees.

PSAC represents about 150,000 workers, most of them government employees. Through the Nunavut Employees Union, a PSAC component, the union represents nearly all unionized workers at municipal and territorial workplaces in Nunavut.

But Turmel said her union isn’t just for government employees, as demonstrated by the PSAC local at the private-sector Ekati Mine.

“We leave the door open for everyone,” Turmel said, saying they’re willing to talk to any private-sector employee group that contacts PSAC.

Meanwhile, Turmel and Mary Lou Cherwaty used the occasion to call for laws banning the use of replacement workers during strikes, alleging that BHP Billiton plans to use replacement workers, or “scabs,” to do the work of striking PSAC members.

But it’s not clear if BHP Billiton is actually doing that.

The 375 to 400 striking PSAC members make up only about one-fifth of the Ekati Mine’s workforce. Most workers at the mine are hired by a variety of contractors.

This past Monday, a company representative said the huge open-pit diamond mine will stay open during the strike, and that “it’s business as usual.”

At the same time, a group of unionized workers have filed an application with the Canadian Industrial Relations Board to have the PSAC local decertified.

PSAC says they’ll fight that move “vigorously.”

Only a handful of Nunavut residents, mostly from the Kitikmeot, likely work for the Ekati mine.