After years of negotiations, employees have their say

After nearly three years of negotiations between Parks Canada and the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), a tentative agreement has been reached and the recommendation of acceptance put forward by the PSAC bargaining team to their members. 

The members of the Jasper local PSAC, which is the biggest in the country more than 300 strong, were given the opportunity to have their say last week when Kevin King, bargaining team member, and Oneil Carlier, regional PSAC representative, came to Jasper to discuss the agreement. 

Guy Auger, president of the Jasper local PSAC, said he was happy with the voter turnout and had the feeling most of the members were content with the recommendation given Canada’s current economic situation.

With over 3,000 PSAC members employed by Parks, the union will give all registered members the opportunity to vote with a final decision to be reached by Feb. 13.

King said that back in 2006, the bargaining team had much higher hopes for Parks workers, believing that an economic increase of five per cent was a good opening position to shoot for in each of three years of contract. “An economic increase that was projected in the private and public sectors where unions existed, and even in places where unions have not existed, the average was bout 4.1 per cent,” he said.

After much deliberation and mediation the bargaining team recommended that their members accept the economic increases which will be back-dated to 2007 and continue until 2010. 

Parks employees will receive a 2.3 per cent increase from Aug. 5, 2007, and a 1.5 per cent increase each year thereafter until Aug. 5, 2010.

Jeannie Baldwin, regional executive VP for PSAC, said the “highlight” was the elimination of pay zones from the Treasury Board across Canada. In an interview shortly after the agreement was reached in November, 2007, she said that nobody was “happy” with the result of the discussions. 

While King thought it best to “reserve comment” on his feelings on the agreement he did reveal that some members he’d spoken to were concerned as the economic increase “is not very attractive” from the perspective of “the mountain parks: it’s suggested the inflation is pretty high here.” But, on the upside “they feel grateful to be employed, compared to the service industry in town, who might not work in a union contract.”

During King’s address to the Parks employees at Thursdays meeting he suggested that there had been a lot done to ensure Parks employees would not be laid off and replaced with temporary help agencies, contractors, or students.

Furthermore, PSAC is taking its case to the Supreme Court to have the definition of “employee” in the Public Service Labour Relations Act (PSLRA) changed to encompass students, casual and short-term workers as well. 

A press release from PSAC on Feb. 3 stated that excluding them from the PSLRA “prevents these workers from becoming union members and denies them access to the collective bargaining process contrary to the freedom of association guarantee in the Charter.”

According to King, including these workers in the PSLRA the PSAC can ensure students are given the same benefits of other union members, receiving fair pay and terms of employment.