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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Unionized employees at the Region of Queens have voted to strike, if necessary. (Rick Conrad)

Engineering and public works employees with the Region of Queens have voted 97 per cent in favour of strike action.

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 36 members of Local 1928 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers voted on the region’s settlement offer on Monday. Thirty-five of 36 members rejected it, voting in favour of strike action if needed.

James Sponagle, the business manager of Local 1928, said the two sides are set to return to the bargaining table with a government-appointed conciliator next Monday.

In the meantime, the union has filed an unfair labour practice complaint with the Nova Scotia Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration. 

That concerns the region’s definition of temporary employees. Sponagle says the employer has told those employees they must cross a picket line in the event of a work stoppage.

The union says they are union members and cannot be forced to work during a strike or lockout.

“They’re going to take our union members and they’ll force them to do bargaining unit work,” Sponagle said.

“If they don’t, they’ll fire them, is what they’ve been told.”

Sponagle said the union offered not to file its strike notice if the region also held off on its lockout notice until the unfair labour practice complaint is resolved.

He said the region rejected that proposal.

Sponagle said the region’s last offer didn’t satisfy union members’ main concerns. 

The IBEW members are some of the lowest-paid municipal workers in Nova Scotia. They’re seeking closer wage parity with other municipal employees in places like Shelburne and Bridgewater. And they want to protect overtime provisions for weekend work.

Mayor Scott Christian said this week that he’s hopeful a deal can be reached. The mayor and councillors get updates on negotiations, but they are not directly involved.

“We certainly value the union members, the public works employees, they’re really valuable members of the organization. We want to make sure there is a fair and good deal in place for these folks.”

The union’s last collective agreement expired in March. In that deal, which was signed in 2020, employees received raises of two per cent a year. The next year, the region gave its non-unionized staff a four per cent raise.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Listen to the audio version of this story below