The Region of Queens has reached a deal with its striking public works employees. (Rick Conrad)

UPDATED 2:55 p.m. Thursday

The Region of Queens and its striking 38 public works employees have reached a deal.

Local 1928 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers voted 32-5 around 6 p.m. Wednesday to accept the region’s latest offer.

Jim Sponagle, the local’s business manager, told QCCR Wednesday night that it was hard to turn down.

“They came back with a financial offer that certainly we couldn’t overlook, couldn’t turn away. I felt it was a significant move from where we were,” he said.

“I think overwhelmingly (union members) were pretty happy with the deal.”

The main issues in negotiations were better wages, overtime protections and keeping temporary employees in the bargaining unit. The last contract expired March 31. The new contract runs from April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2027.

The union said their members were some of the lowest paid municipal workers in Atlantic Canada.

They had been on strike since last Thursday, saying that the region’s latest offer wasn’t any better than the one members resoundingly rejected in mid-December.

Sponagle said the region improved its offer this week and it addressed much of the union’s concerns about wages. But he said the region said it needed the flexibility to call some employees in to work on weekends without paying overtime.

Sponagle said some members weren’t happy with that, but the majority supported the deal.

“At the end of the day, you can’t win every battle. … You can only do your best. I believe I left it all on the table and we couldn’t make any traction with that part of the agreement.”

About 20 supporters of the strikers showed up at Tuesday’s regional council meeting to urge councillors to tell the region’s negotiators to get back to the bargaining table and get a deal. That evening, the municipality gave the union a new offer.

Some family members of the workers told councillors they were ashamed of how the region’s negotiators had treated the employees.

“I think it had a significant impact,” Sponagle said. “The public put pressure on the mayor and council to do their job.”

It’s a three-year deal retroactive to March 31, with the first year giving raises to all members of $4 an hour or more, with 2.5 per cent increases in the second and third years of the deal.

Council ratified the deal in a closed-door session on Thursday morning. Mayor Scott Christian told QCCR that he was grateful the deal was reached.

“These folks have historically been underpaid and our council is pleased to be able to sign a deal with wages that reflect the value that these folks have for our organization and the importance of them to be able to receive a living wage and support their families and themselves.”

Christian read a statement at a short council meeting after the deal was ratified. He said that while he was happy with the deal, he was also upset by some of the comments people made about the region’s managers online.

“I’m unsettled by a number of public allegations and unsubstantiated claims and personal attacks towards some of the region’s employees,” he said.

“
Everyone in our community deserves to be respected, everyone in this organization deserves to be respected, and as your mayor, I need to ensure that all employees, including non-unionized staff and management of this organization, receive that respect, specifically, our (acting) CAO Pam Lovelace and our director of engineering and public works Adam Grant received an incredible amount of personal attacks throughout the later stages of this process as it became contentious.

“I won’t stand in silence as any employee of this organization, including my fellow councillors, are harassed, attacked or bullied.”

Christian said some comments were “pretty intense personal attacks”, with some people calling for Lovelace and Grant to be fired.

As talks broke down, tensions increased, with union members’ supporters pressuring councillors to step in and direct their negotiators to get a deal done.

Some supporters at Tuesday’s meeting were upset by comments made by Lovelace about the union refusing to return to the bargaining table. They were also upset that she tried to downplay the number of employees on strike.

“But there are going to be tough times, there are going to be unpopular decisions, there are going to be mistakes made,” Christian told QCCR, “and we all need to do better and the organization needs to do better to make sure that those appropriate channels are in place so that if there are frustrations and complaints and grievances within our community that there are good established channels to address those things.”

The region is still claiming that temporary employees are not members of the bargaining unit. The union’s unfair labour practices complaints about that are still outstanding. Dates have not been set yet for that hearing.

Christian said he believes most employees will be back on the job by Monday. And he said the region plans to hire experts to help address those tensions, calm things down and ensure that all employees return to a supportive workplace.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Unionized workers with the Region of Queens went on strike Thursday morning. (Rick Conrad photo)

UPDATED THURSDAY, 4:45 P.M.

Engineering and public works employees with the Region of Queens are on strike.

About 40 members of Local 1928 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers set up picket lines at three locations in Liverpool on Thursday morning.

The workers are responsible for maintaining the region’s streets, sidewalks, parks and other properties. They also work in waste and recycling facilities as well as water and sewage treatment plants.

The union and the region have been negotiating for about a year. Their last contract expired March 31. 

Jim Sponagle is the business manager of Local 1928. He was on the picket line this morning with some members near the Hank Snow Museum in Liverpool.

“There are still three outstanding issues: being forced to work weekends for straight time, no overtime, that’s one big issue. Wages still nowhere where they need to be. Wages are lower than any other municipality, jurisdiction in Atlantic Canada.

“The temporary employees are still an issue. I call it a union-busting measure where the employer has tried to carve out a work group from our collective agreement that have been in our collective agreement for decades. I don’t understand their position other than the fact that maybe they could deem them non-union and have them perform our work during a strike.”

Sponagle said both sides were back at the bargaining table on Tuesday, but he said the region’s offer hadn’t improved much from the one that members resoundingly rejected in December.

Members voted 97 per cent in favour of strike action. They have been in a legal strike position since Dec. 11.

“From our last strike mandate, the only change was they offered a half a per cent on Year 2 and a half a per cent on Year 3” of a new contract, Sponagle said.

The region issued a news release Thursday morning, saying that it filed a lockout notice with the province’s labour minister in response to the strike.

The region said all municipal services will continue as usual, including garbage collection and snow plowing.

Pam Lovelace, the acting CAO for the Region of Queens, told QCCR on Thursday that the strike took her by surprise.

“I was not informed in any way there was going to be a strike today,” Lovelace said.

“Although knowing that the union members and their leadership wouldn’t meet with us at the table on Tuesday to actually negotiate with a provincial conciliator, that was a good indication that they weren’t willing to reach a deal.”

A provincially appointed conciliator is a disinterested third party who will sometimes meet with both parties together, or meet with each side individually and communicate proposals back and forth. Each labour negotiation is unique and the conciliator generally gets a feel for whether it would be productive for both sides to meet face to face with the conciliator present.

Lovelace says that in this case, union negotiators refused to meet with the region and the conciliator together, and would meet only with the conciliator.

“And so because of that we weren’t actually able to have effective negotiations, we had to use the middle man of the conciliator rather than having constructive conversations.”

Union members are some of the lowest paid municipal employees in Atlantic Canada, at a time when regional councillors and senior staff have complained it’s difficult to fill job vacancies.

Some unionized jobs at the region pay less than $18 an hour. And some Red Seal-certified mechanics and technicians with the region make no more than $27 an hour, compared to $40 an hour in other jurisdictions. 

Both sides were working on adjusting wage grids to alleviate some of those discrepancies. But the union’s Sponagle said there still hasn’t been enough movement from the region. Their latest proposal amounted to a two per cent raise in each year of a deal, he said.

Sponagle said his members want to get back to work. But they also want a deal that keeps pace with what municipal employees in other places are making.

“I dealt with other jurisdictions in P.E.I. when the employer understood. When they came with a fair wage increase it was hard to say no. It just seems this employer doesn’t want to work with the union. But somebody doesn’t like unions here at the Region of Queens.

“This is the first time since 1973 that I’m aware of IBEW Local 1928 going on strike. It’s not something we typically do. We like to do our work, we don’t complain and we go home.”

The union is still waiting to have hearing dates set for its unfair labour practice complaint against the region. It alleges that the region told some members that they still had to come to work in the event of a work stoppage or risk being fired. 

Lovelace said the region is looking for a fair deal and to get employees back to work. But that’s only if the union is willing to return to the bargaining table.

“I’m already at the table, I’m waiting for IBEW Local 1928 to arrive at the table. And we will continue to operate and the services that the residents expect and hopefully we will see the leadership of Local 1928 come back to the table.”

Lovelace said managers, supervisors and third-party contractors would make sure that services aren’t interrrupted.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Road work in Liverpool in June 2020. File photo by Ed Halverson

Contract talks between the Region of Queens and its unionized public works employees are at a stalemate as either side could declare a work stoppage at midnight.

Local 1928 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers represents about 40 full-time and temporary employees in the region’s engineering and public works department.

They are responsible for maintaining the region’s streets, sidewalks, parks and other properties. They also work in waste and recycling facilities as well as water and sewage treatment plants.

The two sides met with a conciliator on Monday, with the union submitting a new proposal. The region responded about five hours later, with very little movement from their last position, according to a union representative.

Union members resoundingly rejected the region’s settlement offer last Monday, with a 97 per cent vote in favour of strike action if needed.

“It equated to very little to nothing,” James Sponagle, business manager for Local 1928, said of the municipality’s revised offer.

“We’re at an impasse right now and unless they change their position, the union’s not going to concede. We’ve already voted on what they presented. They haven’t come back with anything substantive, so our position hasn’t changed.”

As of midnight Tuesday, either side could declare a strike or lockout with 48 hours’ notice.

Regional councillors got an update on negotiations on Tuesday in a closed-door session that lasted almost 90 minutes.

Mayor Scott Christian told QCCR afterward that the region doesn’t want to lock out its employees. 

“At this time, we have no intent to lock out the workers,” Christian said.

“We remain hopeful and we recognize that it’s really challenging for people particularly with the holidays approaching to have this uncertainty. Also recognizing it’s really challenging also for the folks on the other side of the bargaining table, our managers, who are attempting to negotiate on behalf of Region of Queens Municipality. 

“We hold out hope that there will be a resolution before too long. Our council remains committed to a good and fair deal for everybody.”

Sponagle said the region has handcuffed the union’s ability to back up its proposals with strike action. He says they’ve threatened to fire the 14 temporary employees if they don’t cross a picket line.

The union has filed two unfair labour practice complaints over that threat. Sponagle says hearing dates should be set next week and he hopes for a hearing early in the new year.

He said CAO Cody Joudry assured employees in a meeting last Friday they would not be fired. But Sponagle says he hasn’t yet put that in writing.

Sponagle said it would be “reckless” for him to call a strike as long as those temporary employees could be fired.

Public works employees with the Region of Queens are some of the lowest-paid municipal workers in Nova Scotia, at a time when the municipality has complained that it can’t fill job vacancies.

Some unionized jobs at the region pay less than $18 an hour. And Sponagle said that some Red Seal-certified technicians with the region make no more than $27 an hour. 

Non-unionized technicians elsewhere with the same certification make as much as $40 an hour, while their unionized peers at Nova Scotia Power get paid about $50 an hour.

“There’s not much incentive to work as a Red Seal technician at the Region of Queens,” Sponagle said.

Christian and Sponagle said both sides are trying to agree to wage grid adjustments to account for those discrepancies. But Sponagle said the region has offered increases of only 1.5 per cent a year after that.

No new talks are scheduled. But Sponagle says the union is always willing to return to the bargaining table as long as the region improves their last offer.

“If they want to reach out to the union if they have an epiphany or if they have a change in their position, my phone’s always on.”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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