James Woods, Saskatchewan News Network; Canwest News ServicePublished: Tuesday, February 26, 2008
But Levy said the biggest potential complication may be the government's essential services bill, introduced in the fall sitting of the legislature and expected to be passed sometime in the spring sitting that begins March 10.
Nurses' union vice-president Marlene Brown said Friday the union isn't happy about the legislation that will give employers the ability to designate some workers as essential services who cannot strike.
"The legislation itself certainly has an impact on bargaining for now and for the future. Absolutely. For us, our interpretation of what we read is that we would literally not be allowed any effective strike action ... basically it's through the government that you get the funding, so you're pretty much at the mercy of the government to determine what they want to provide," she said in an interview Friday.
Brown said SUN's goal is always to get a new collective agreement before the old one expires, but the prospect of essential services legislation will be a factor in SUN's course of action if the contract expires before a new one is in place.
Levy believes the essential services legislation --which government house leader Rod Gantefoer said Thursday will likely be unchanged heading into the spring session -- could makes job action more likely.
The last strike by SUN was in 1999.
Read more HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment