One can practically hear Jack Munro shouting from his grave.
"You call that a strike?" he would have roared, his face red in outrage, if he was alive to see the City of Prince George's unionized employees out on the picket lines Saturday.
"Shut this city down until you get a contract, people!" the legendary B.C. union boss would have thundered. "If the residents don't like it, tell 'em to go complain to the mayor!"
Nobody wants to see the kind of provincial general strikes in the private and public sector that Munro was willing to endorse 30 years ago happen in Prince George today but the uncertainty created by the two locals of the Canadian Union of Public Employees with its strike-but-not-a-strike direction is worse.
Saturday's one-day strike, followed by a work-to-rule campaign, will do nothing to get the city back to the table and a new contract worked out.
If city staff are willing to keep working without a contract and without a raise, well, that's just fine for city administration, the mayor and council.
There is no incentive currently for the city or for the union to move from their positions.
This tactic could actually hurt the union's cause more than help.
Work-to-rule campaigns often divide the membership and put workers willing to stay an extra 10 minutes to process someone's building permit in a tough spot. Nobody likes having multiple bosses, so having a shop steward come around to say your shift ended three minutes ago, put down the tools and go home might not sit well in the days ahead, even with members committed to the cause.
Furthermore, work-to-rule cuts both ways in a union environment.
Clauses in the contract that were ignored by city managers to the benefit of workers could suddenly be enforced, such as: having to have all vacation days for the following year booked by the end of the previous one; carrying over vacation days into a new calendar year; or being able to book more than two weeks of consecutive holidays.
Contracts are in place to not only protect workers. Clauses like the one that urges workers to work first, grieve later when there's a problem protect employers from unexpected labour disruptions.
A union that believes it can use the contract like a sword to punish the employer by enacting work-to-rule without informing its members that the contract cuts just as sharp on the other edge of the blade is either stupid or intentionally misleading its members. That's not to say that's what's happening here but it is to point out that work-to-rule pledges can inconvenience workers, too.
If CUPE leaders thought its Saturday strike would help in the battle, they were mistaken. For starters, issuing a strike notice and then going out for only one day - on a weekend no less - shows tentativeness, not resolve. It's the equivalent of threatening to play your ace and then laying down a nine with great fanfare. Experienced negotiators and poker players know that weakness makes your opponent bolder and more aggressive, sensing surrender is near.
City management is likely even less willing to compromise now than they were last week.
Union officials saying they didn't want to unfairly impact city residents in the labour dispute may have scored a couple of public relations points but those little wins are worthless right now.
Union members dismiss the public criticism they sometimes receive that they are overpaid and underworked, so why believe that public pressure directed to the city will force it to soften its stance?
The only victory that matters, for both the city and the union, is a new contract, which will allow residents and businesses to conduct their affairs without the uncertainty of labour strife affecting their lives.
Any action either side is taking that's not leading to that new contract is just playing games.
-- Managing editor Neil Godbout
