BY CRAIG GILBERT
Greater Sudbury Utilities Inc. is employing a method of collective bargaining ?diametrically opposite? to the one it has used for the past 25 years.
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 4705 president Wyman MacKinnon is confused by the employer?s move to have a Ministry of Labour official come in and oversee a conciliation process, rather than going through negotiations first.
?We are not looking at a strike at this time, but it was not our intent to go into conciliation this quickly,? MacKinnon said Friday. ?I?ve never seen that in my history of years and years collective bargaining. I?m confused - this is totally diametrically opposite of how this employer has negotiated in the past 25 years.?
A GSU official confirmed the union applied for the conciliator as part of normal negotiating procedure.
But when the bargaining unit informed the utility they were going to apply for a conciliator as part of due process following a strike mandate, MacKinnon said, they were still willing to negotiate.
?We had three days scheduled at the end of April. Knowing full well we could get a conciliator before then, we were willing to negotiate with the hopes of hammering out a deal in three days, 18 hours a day if that?s what it took.?
The utility, however, refused to negotiate for those days, saying something to the effect of ?you?ve applied for a conciliator and we won?t talk until then,? according to MacKinnon.
?We had the hotel rooms booked and everything ... this is all part of due process, it?s perfectly normal to apply for a conciliator.?
A few weeks ago, workers at the utility gave their bargaining team a 92.6 per cent strike mandate. Their contract expired at the end of March, but both sides agreed at that time to continue negotiations.
A few days had been set aside for marathon negotiations at the end of the month, but have been cancelled.
?The strike mandate was necessary to get a feel for where the membership is before heading into negotiations,? said MacKinnon.
The key stumbling block at the bargaining table relates to benefit concessions.
This round of negotiations marks the first time the utility has tried to cut benefits since the local started paying for them in the early 1980s through banked sick leave funds.
?These people paid for benefits from sick leave time banked. They gave them away, and they aren?t going to buy them back now,? said MacKinnon.
Utilities across the province are trying to claw back benefits for their workers, said MacKinnon.
The bargaining unit represents 80 to 85 inside and outside workers at GSU. The outside workers are constantly replacing street lamps, upgrading old lines and installing new ones.
They often working alongside with crews from Bell Canada, the city and natural gas providers since many of the lines are side-by-side.
?These are highly trained people,? MacKinnon said. ?You have to know what you?re doing. There are strict health and safety regulations when it
comes to hydro.?
Should a strike take place, the effect on the city would be ?pretty horrendous,? he said.
The last strike at the utility was short, 20 years ago and came after many days of negotiations, MacKinnon said.
?They had better take benefits off the table or there will be a problem.?
MacKinnon wouldn?t give a specific date on when the membership would be prepared to hit the picket line, however, he said he wants to see
progress at the bargaining table in the near future.
