Crowns, Unifor reach tentative agreement to end strike

Six Saskatchewan Crown corporations have reached a tentative agreement with Unifor to end a 17-day labour dispute, the Crown Investments Corporation (CIC) announced Sunday afternoon.

The Crown corporations — SaskEnergy, SaskPower, SaskTel, Directwest, SecurTek and SaskWater — signed memoranda of agreement with the trade union to allow workers to return to the job once the agreement has been ratified by employees at all of the Crown corporations.

“Strikes are not easy.  They’re not meant to be easy for the company, they’re not meant to be easy for the workers and our members persevered, they stood together and they stood strong to the very end,” said Chris MacDonald, assistant to Unifor’s national president.

The union and the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency previously had reached a tentative agreement.

“These agreements were reached because dedicated teams were determined to achieve agreements that are fair and beneficial to both the employees and the corporations,” Crown Investments Corporation president and CEO Blair Swystun said via media release.

“On behalf of the leadership at each of the Crowns and CIC, thank you to the Crown bargaining teams and Unifor’s negotiators who have worked tirelessly to reach settlements.”

Very good news today that SaskTel, SaskEnergy, SaskPower, Directwest, SecurTek and SaskWater have all reached tentative agreements with their respective Unifor locals. https://t.co/stPHrQJLie

— Scott Moe (@PremierScottMoe) October 20, 2019

Employees will begin voting on the tentative deals in the coming weeks.

MacDonald would not divulge much about the terms.

“Nobody walks away from these things feeling they’ve won a hundred per cent of what they fought for,” he said.

Throughout the labour dispute, the union had accused the SaskParty government of ordering crown leadership to hold firm on an offer that included wage freezes in the first two years.

On Saturday, the union announced it had offered to bring in a third-party arbitrator, which was rejected.

“This is about standing up against a mandate. This is about standing up against a government that imposes things and thinks they can jam it down on every public sector worker in this province,” MacDonald said.

17 day #SaskCrowns lockout – strike ends as tentative agreements reached for all six #SaskCrowns. Unifor wants to thank the members and the public for their incredible support. News Release:https://t.co/ZsnrOqhqhb #skpoli @PremierScottMoe pic.twitter.com/vEMlN1WTBf

— Unifor Canada (@UniforTheUnion) October 20, 2019

Return to work schedules will begin on Monday, the media release said. It is expected to take the Crowns a few days for operations to return to normal.

Employees are expected to receive more information regarding schedules Sunday evening.

The strike started Oct. 4.