Labour negotiations came to a boiling point in 2013 in Prince George.
The collective agreement between the city's unionized employees, represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees locals 1048 and 399, expired Dec. 31, 2012.
A year of negotiations have so far proved unsuccessful, and got off to a contentious start in January when the city hired Adriana Wills, a Vancouver-based labour lawyer, to lead bargaining talks.
It was a move that didn't set well with union leaders, who said they had enjoyed a good negotiation relationship with their employer in the past.
"I do know that the past history of Prince George, we've always managed to resolve and come through with fair collective agreements just working together across from each other," said local 1048 president Janet Bigelow after the city released a statement on the addition. "We've not had one strike. We've resolved everything fine."
That job action record was broken Dec. 14, when union members staged a one-day strike, closing several public facilities for the day.
The 14-hour action followed months of rejected offers and the controversial inclusion of questions about the competing proposals (the city was offering two years with no wage increases, while at the time, the union was looking for a two-per-cent raise each year) and employee wages on a telephone survey conducted for public budget consultation purposes.
Coun. Brian Skakun expressed concern over the inclusion of the CUPE wages in the budget survey.
"I think, in my opinion, the survey has been used as a PR thing," he said. "I can appreciate we want to know what people think about our city workers, but I think the timing, in my opinion, is bad."
The two sides called a truce in mid-December, vowing there would be no further job action until today at the earliest.
Throughout the process, CUPE has said the mandate handed down from the mayor and council to not offer any wage increases demonstrates a disrespect for the employees.
"In the past month the city has been more interested in pursuing a public relations campaign that devalues civic workers than bargaining," Bigelow said in a press release issued after staff rejected the city's "last offer" in November. "They've surveyed residents about negotiations, put out damaging press releases and plan to hire new communications staff - all tactics waging war on their own employees. This isn't how bargaining is supposed to happen."
But, according to mayor Shari Green, that's not the case.
"There are great, great people who work for this organization and I appreciate every single one of them and the contribution that they make. And just because you don't receive a raise doesn't mean you're not respected or appreciated," she said "There's a lot of rhetoric that gets thrown around to help win your argument and I think we're seeing a bit of that."
The fact staff have received raises for the past 28 years isn't one that can be easily replicated in other sectors, she said. "So I think they've been very well respected financially over the years."
