Prince Albert, Sask. municipal strike action begins after negotiations reach stalemate | Globalnews.ca
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City of Prince Albert, Sask., staff members started strike action on Thursday after an impasse was reached in negotiations between the union and the city.
A notice was put out by the city saying it received notice on Tuesday that CUPE 882 would begin strike action starting with the refusal to train management, contractors and co-workers.
While the city said strike action can escalate from there up to the point of a complete withdrawal of services, it noted services have not been impacted yet.
“This is obviously disappointing. It is clear that no matter how much we give, they want more,” said Kiley Bear, director of corporate services for the City of Prince Albert.
“We bargained in good faith for several months and engaged in constructive and meaningful discussions. We presented an offer of 11 per cent, which is the best in the province, and it still isn’t enough. We have a responsibility to the taxpayers of Prince Albert. We will not ask them to pay more.”
The city said a short-term backup plan is in place and updates will be given as services become interrupted, which can be tracked on the city’s website.
At the end of July, the union noted strike action could be on its way, saying the offer given by the city didn’t keep pace with inflationary costs.
“The city’s offer would leave city workers with less purchasing power at a time when everything is getting more expensive,” said Tammy Vermette, president of CUPE 882.
“Despite the rhetoric from the City of Prince Albert, this offer does not address the crushing cost of living and instead asks their workers to do more with less.”
Cara Stelmaschuk, vice-president of the union, said bargaining started off well until talks about money began.
She said the first discussion was met with a package, with the bargaining team being told that was the city’s final offer, with no further discussion.
“We kind of expected it to maybe be a little bit tense, but not contentious,” Stelmaschuk said back in July.
CUPE 882 has somewhere in the ball park of 160 employees working for the city, with Stelmaschuk saying about 59 of them were full-time staff.
The city says on its website that the offer it was giving was the highest in the province, saying between 2022 and 2025 an 11-per cent total increase would be seen.
It pointed to other cities, saying the City of Regina settled for 6.7 per cent over three years and the City of Lloydminster settled for 10 per cent over five years.
Global News’ Gates Guarin sat down with both the union and the city and got two very different viewpoints.
Stelmaschuk spoke again for CUPE 882, saying they haven’t heard too much in terms of a response from the city.
“This is just more of a pressure on the managers within the building to do a little bit extra, over and above their managerial duties possibly are.”
She said they don’t have the intention of having a full-blown strike, noting the door is still very much open.
Stelmaschuk claimed it was the city who declared the impasse and called for a professional conciliator but said those conciliator talks weren’t properly utilized and no report was filed.
“Both sides didn’t come to the table.”
She said in the past, noting some of the people they’ve elected to go to the bargaining table have been there before, they’ve brought everything to the table and had a back-and-forth discussion, but said that didn’t happen this time.
“It’s a back-and-forth. I just feel that’s the fairest way to conduct these kinds of negotiations, is that everyone at least hears each other and gets to say something.”
She says it’s hard to predict what will happen next, noting these steps haven’t happened in the past with the city and there’s no road map to navigate the situation.
Kevin Yates is the manager of Human Resources for the City of Prince Albert and said negotiations began in November 2022, noting bargaining between the employer and union lasted for months, covering everything not monetary in nature.
He claimed that when monetary discussions began the union came to the table looking for 30 per cent over three years as well as other items.
“We countered with an offer of (an) 11 per cent general wage increase, and a half per cent to deal with the lowest paid people,” Yates said.
Yates then said the union came back with a final offer of 12 per cent with other monetary adjustments.
He claimed the city put the maximum amount of money they were approved for on the table with the 11-per cent offer.
Yates said the offer was made with the idea that the city needs to keep employees and hire quality workers as well.
“We were actually shocked that we got the rejection of the offer, and we have no more to give.”
Yates added that they can’t go back to the bargaining table if they don’t have anything else to give.
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