Unionized city workers will be able to go on strike as early as tomorrow afternoon.
The most important phrase in the previous sentence is "as early as."
The union can't send its members to the picket line any time before tomorrow afternoon but can send staff out at any time and in any way after that.
It would be well within the union's rights to keep workers on the job and to see if a deal can be worked out on Friday or over the weekend. The union could also order rotating strikes at certain times and certain locations.
Rather than bargaining towards a new deal this week, however, the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the City of Prince George have been holding long meetings to argue over what constitutes essential service, should the union follow through on its strike threat.
The union wants as few positions as possible declared essential because the more inconvenienced local residents would be by the labour disruption, the more pressure the city will feel to settle with its staff. On the other hand, the city wants as many positions as possible declared essential to minimize the impact on local residents and to give the unionized employees little choice but to accept the city's contract requests.
When the union issued its 72-hour strike notice Monday afternoon, it said the decision may be left in the hands of the Labour Relations Board to ultimately decide what constitutes an essential city service in December 2013 in Prince George.
The two CUPE locals covering inside and outside city workers in Prince George were no doubt aware of what the LRB had deemed as essential service during the labour dispute between the City of Quesnel and its CUPE workers in the summer of 2010.
Talks had broken down in August after the union rejected the city's three-year offer of zero per cent in the first year, 1 per cent in the second and two per cent in the third.
A week later, the LRB made its ruling on essential municipal services in Quesnel. If the same template were to be applied to Prince George, it would be a resounding success for the union.
For starters, just a handful of positions were considered essential services and the majority of them were civilian positions at the RCMP detachment. Pump operators for water and sewer stations were declared essential but just on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
One payroll clerk was set aside for three days after the payroll deadline that would have followed the start of a strike or lockout "in order to provide training to excluded personnel."
The "excluded personnel" and management performing essential service work would have had to "work a minimum of sixty (60) hours total per week" with no replacement employees or volunteers allowed.
The only win for the City of Quesnel was a shallow victory. In the event of a disaster or emergency, the city could order all employees back to work, even if the union disagreed that an emergency or disaster situation actually existed.
The LRB also gave itself the power to monitor the situation and change the rules how it wanted, when it wanted, "to prevent immediate or serious danger to the health, safety or welfare of the residents of British Columbia."
An LRB order for Prince George would have to be a little different. Except for the small number of "career" firefighters, Quesnel operates a volunteer fire department. Prince George would have to keep all or most of its firefighters working during a labour disruption, since they also serve as first responders to medical emergencies. Snow clearing would also be required to allow movement of emergency vehicles, although that might mean basic snow removal only and no driveway or sidewalk clearing.
The end result in Quesnel was there was no work stoppage and the union settled with the city in September for a three-year deal with no increase in year one, 1.5 per cent in year two and two per cent in year three, along with a $1,000 signing bonus.
If the LRB needs to decide on essential municipal services in Prince George, hopefully its decision will be onerous enough on both sides to force them back to bargaining and getting a new contract in place.
