Unifor pickets outside Coronach power plant, SaskTel dealers after province turns down arbitration

One day after getting its arbitration plan turned down by the province, Unifor announced further actions to get Premier Scott Moe’s attention.

In a news release on Saturday, Unifor said it’s “bolstering the picket line at the Poplar River power plant in Coronach.” The union said it’s only letting essential services workers through and that this action will last until a deal is reached.

Members are also leafleting SaskTel dealers across Saskatchewan, encouraging customers “to take their business elsewhere during the lockout.”

Chris Macdonald is the assistant to Unifor’s national president. He said “the only way to get (the government’s) attention is to disrupt their business,” noting people shouldn’t be taken aback that actions are escalating.

“We’ve said that business won’t be as usual, so people shouldn’t be surprised where we show up because we’re doing everything we can to get the attention of people and to get (the government) back to the table,” he explained.

On Friday, the union held a news conference announcing it had sent a letter to Moe, asking him to agree to a third-party arbitrator to help settle their wage negotiation issues and end the strike that began on Oct. 4.

The province later responded in a written statement, saying the Crown corporations involved will not be agreeing to binding arbitration as it believes “agreements can be reached by continuing to bargain in good faith.”

However, Macdonald doesn’t expect that to happen any time soon.

“If they don’t ever take the zeros off the table and can continue to talk about good faith, frankly it’s a pretty tough argument to make,” he said.

Financial issues remain the main hurdle in the negotiations. The government’s offer doesn’t include any salary increases for the Crown workers involved over the first two years of the deal.

The union has long complained about the salary offer in light of the pay increases MLAs have received.