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Northern
www.northernsentinel.com
Volume 61 No. 20
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
$
1.30 INCLUDES TAX
Municipal strike continues after failed mediation
Unifor 2300 picketers at Nalabila, in response to line painting work being taken on the road which had work tasks overlapping with usual union work. Cameron Orr
Mediation? Arbitration? The only sure thing in all of this is frustration. After a three-day long mediation marathon last week any hopes that a resolution would be found to the months-long municipal strike were dashed when the District of Kitimat announced there was no agreement to be had. It was the District’s and Unifor 2300’s second go at mediation. In light of correspondence released in the week ahead of round two, when Unifor’s business agent Martin McIlwrath suggested the sides were “close” to an agreement, many were keen to hope that one second swing would get the sides together. The District was brief in their announcement of a mediation break down last week. “The District of Kitimat is disappointed that mediation ended today without reaching a new Collective Agreement,” the town released to their website May 13. “The medi-
ator remains available to the parties although no further dates have been set at this time.” The mayor said there were no further comments relating to negotiations to be made as of Friday, just ahead of our print deadline. The union itself also had nothing to add at the time about negotiations. Meanwhile, Unifor 2301 did successfully pass a motion that they will offer of an additional one hour’s dues assessment for two months after an agreement is eventually made — formalizing a past offer from their executive. 2301 will also provide two months worth of one hour extra dues to 2300 members right away, following votes which took place last Thursday and Friday. “It’s a significant financial support,” said Unifor Business Agent Martin McIlwrath. In an e-mail to the Sentinel he had also written, “This will enable them to get a fair Collective Agreement, no matter how long it takes.”
Line painting work draws out pickets to Nalabila Blvd. Picketers (shown above) raced to Nalabila Boulevard last week in response to the line painting work by Yellowhead Pavement
Marking. While line painting itself is work that has been contracted out for years, the road cleaning to prepare for the work re-
Kitimat student gets top marks in competition.
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mains unionized work at the District. Members discovered that cleaning work was being undertaken, drawing them out. Yellowhead manager Doug Russell said the company decided to step back for a little while in response to the pickets, the company having no appetite to cross paths with the
current labour dispute. “The guys, they phoned me and I said ‘well, I think we better back off.’ It only seemed to be the sensible thing to do,” said Russell. He added, “We’re not doing their work. This is a contract we’ve had for years with the city. So it’s not as if they’ve hired
us to come in to do city workers’ work.” When asked about the matter of the road clean-up work normally being done by District workers, Russell just said they had been asked to come in for the painting due to the safety issues of faded street lines and crosswalks. “We didn’t just
show up. We were asked to come and do it,” he said. The efforts of the picketers weren’t universally cheered. In the hours following the picket line, the Sentinel was called by a motorist who drove through during the picketing and said she felt intimidated by the line, and that some of the picket-
ers were standing in the road and not allowing her to pass, even when asked. Unifor’s Martin McIlwrath said he wasn’t aware of this situation but noted the union is not intending to intimidate anyone and if a person has concerns about behaviour they can contact the union office directly.
SO2 hearings to continue in Kitimat Cameron Orr and Josh Massey After May 15 there is a two week gap until hearings resume in Kitimat itself regarding the SO2 emissions from the modernized Rio Tinto Alcan smelter. The next hearing dates will be June 1 to 5, with another set from June 8 to 12. The Northwest Institute has continued providing their own summaries of the hearing’s witnesses, saying on days six and seven the board heard from economist and cost-benefit analyst Brian Scarfe from the University of Victoria. According to the Institute, Scarfe’s cost-benefit analysis considered the
physical and mental health impacts and environmental consequences of increasing pollution in this confined airshed and that according to his analysis, the health costs of the project would be externalized to local residents and would outweigh the costs of installing scrubbers. His testimony, says the Institute, concluded that if the province had analyzed the complete picture of cost-benefits from RTA’s Modernization Project, decision-makers would not have approved the permit to increase of SO2. According to the lawyer representing Emily Toews, Richard Overstall, install-
ing scrubbers would be the best case outcome for his client who suffers asthma but wants to continue living in Kitimat with a cleaner airshed. Using a cleaner but more costly coke anode could be another option, said Overstall. RTA spokesperson Kevin Dobbin said this option has been taken into consideration but that the company is confident they can show sulfur emissions are manageable once the modernized plant opens later this year. The company has maintained that potential effects to those who suffer asthma would be minimal.