Newfoundland premier wants to have it both ways

Government bargains publicly while trying to muzzle union

St. John's - Danny Williams wants to have it both ways.

The premier of Newfoundland and Labrador went on province-wide television Jan. 5, and opened his first round of negotiations with provincial employees by publicly announcing a wage freeze.

Now the Tory leader is complaining because the issue is being discussed by the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees (NAPE/NUPGE), and other unions in the province.

"Without any consultation with the unions whatsoever, he made his major bargaining position public: a freeze on public sector wages," says NAPE president Leo Puddister. "He put it out there in the public, and then he complains when NAPE attacks that policy."

The union president also notes that the premier compounded the issue by talking, again in public, about withdrawing indexing for provincial retirees who are 65 years of age and over.

Union doing its job

“When we defended the pensioners, which we had to do, he accuses us of bargaining in public," Puddister adds.

If this weren't enough, the premier then muddied the waters further by suggesting, once again in public, that the cost of raising wages for public employees could mean the elimination of 2,000 jobs across the province.

"Does he expect us to accept that in silence, now that he has made it public?” the union leader says. "The premier’s new public bargaining position has serious implications."

In effect, the premier is asking public sector unions to turn their backs on 2,000 members in return for a raise of those who remain.

"What does that say about his respect for the public sector unions, that he could put such a proposal on the table in public? Puddister asks. "In my 35 years of collective bargaining, I've never seen anything like this.”

Web posted by NUPGE: 10 February 2004

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