Striking Crown employees in Moose Jaw took their concerns on the road and picketed in front of Moose Jaw-Wakamow MLA Greg Lawrence’s office to send a message.
About 60 Unifor union members from SaskTel and other Crown corporations gathered at Lawrence’s constituency office on South Hill on Oct. 16 during a lunchtime protest. Two union members spoke during the gathering, along with Regina Rosemont MLA Trent Wotherspoon and federal NDP candidate Talon Regent.
All Unifor union members across the province have been locked out for nearly two weeks.
The provincial government has become involved in the bargaining process by pushing the proposed zero-per-cent wage increases, explained event MC Lorne Hill, a network technician for SaskTel in Moose Jaw. Neither the company nor the union has stayed at the bargaining table to hammer out a collective agreement.
What union members want is a return to the bargaining table and an increase for union members in the cost of living adjustment (COLA), he continued. The union believes an increase of 2.3 per cent is fair since that is what government MLAs received recently.
Improvements are also needed in the workplace around mental health issues, while it’s important to maximize the number of full-time employees each company has, Hill remarked.
“We want to put pressure on the local MLA (Lawrence), who used to work for SaskTel,” he said. “Greg is on leave from SaskTel to seek public office. So he is still on the seniority roster.”
The union is seeing municipal economies throughout the province suffering, Hill said. A COLA increase for working people and families would go back into those economies through income tax and through purchases.
“We’re trying to support local businesses … ,” added Hill. “We’ve had a lot of good, paying jobs in the community of Moose Jaw disappear over the last four years and we’re concerned about that.”
Retired SaskTel employee Bill Lawson worked for the Crown corporation for 36 years and has been through several strikes.
Besides financial pressures, there are other pressures that the provincial government won’t understand about this strike the way union members do, such as the emotional and psychological effects, he told the crowd.
“We are supposed to be a society that understands this and will go to great lengths to support mental wellness, but the Sask. Party obviously didn’t get this memo,” Lawson said. “They are prepared to let both people on both sides of the picket line suffer with the stress, anxiety, exhaustion and depression that are real and very much connected to the way this government is handling this labour dispute.”
The effects from this strike will be long-lasting, he added, so it’s important for union members to look out for each other.
“Every time you get a wage increase … it means that every other employee in the country looks to you and says, ‘OK, we need to remain competitive. We need to attract workers, so we have to keep up to the unions,’” remarked Regent.
While out knocking on doors, Regent has heard from people who understand the value of unions. However, he also hears questions about what unions are fighting for. He pointed out unions fight for safer workplaces, fair wage increases, workers’ pension plans, and benefits for part-time and full-time employees.
It’s important to work together for a fair deal, said Wotherspoon. Union members are not asking for anything that is out of line or different than what Lawrence — “who has turned out to be a potted plant when it comes to the important issues” — receives.
“This is a matter of fairness and you deserve nothing less than a fair deal as soon as possible,” Wotherspoon added.
