Water, sewer, police and payroll will receive varying degrees of protection should City of Prince George unionized employees go on strike, if the experience in Quesnel nearly three-and-a-half years ago is anything to go by.
In August 2010, municipal employees in Quesnel rejected a contract offer and issued strike notice.
But before they could take to the picket lines, the City of Quesnel and the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 1050 had to work out an agreement through the B.C. Labour Relations Board on what services were essential and how much unionized labour would be needed to keep them going.
And according to a subsequent order from the LRB, a pump operator had to be on hand three days a week for six hours a day to do checks, readings and adjustments at Quesnel's water and sewer stations.
As well, a payroll clerk had to report to work for the first three days immediately after the payroll deadline following the start of a strike to provide training to non-union personnel.
Support provided to the Quesnel RCMP detachment by municipal employees appeared to get the most protection.
A guard had to be on site from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week, a transcription stenographer had to be on-call on 24 hours notice, a clerk to handle requests by police for information on suspects had to work eight hours per day Monday to Friday, a records clerk had to work for eight hours on Monday and four hours per day from Tuesday to Friday, and an exhibits clerk had to work four hours per day, Monday to Friday.
Other clauses included a requirement that non-unionized staff work at least 60 hours a week to maintain essential services and facilities and outside contractors could be used only for those services provided on a contract basis in the absence of a strike or lockout.
And, in the event of an emergency or disaster, employees had to be available. If there was a dispute over whether an emergency or disaster situation exists, "the employees will perform the work in question," according to an LRB order.
Because the dispute had reached that stage during the summer, snow removal was not an issue. How that will be dealt with in Prince George remains to be seen. The bargaining committees for the City of Prince George and the two CUPE locals representing inside and outside workers were in Vancouver Tuesday working out a similar agreement.
Although taken to the brink, there never was a strike in Quesnel. The sides agreed to take their issues to mediation and in September a settlement was reached for a three-year contract that saw a $1,000 bonus in lieu of retroactive pay for 2010, a 1.5 per cent wage increase in the second year and two per cent in the third as well as benefit improvements.
The month before, unionized employees had rejected an offer of zero per cent in year one followed by one per cent in the second year and two per cent in the third, plus the equivalent of a 0.5 per cent increase in the first year in the form of benefit improvements.
