By Tom Taylor | NWT News/North
Morale is strong among the striking employees of the Fort Simpson Housing Authority (FSHA), according to Josee-Anne Spirito, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) North’s regional executive vice-president.
“They’re really motivated,” Spirito told NNSL Media on Friday afternoon. “They know what they deserve, and they’re motivated, and they’re doing really well right now.”
Unionized employees working with the authority in the Northwest Territories walked off the job on Oct. 1 after serving a 72-hour strike notice to the employer on Sept. 25.
The FSHA serves about 100 homes in Fort Simpson, as well as the nearby communities of Jean Marie River, Nahanni Butte, Sambaa K’e and Wrigley. Employees are claiming that low wages have resulted in staffing shortages, which have in turn led to burnout among workers, and poorer service for clients.
“The wages are definitely the biggest [issue],” said Spirito. “Obviously, these workers are not really happy. Callback pay is also an issue, as well as retention bonuses.”
The FSHA receives its funding from the GNWT.
Days after the strike began, Spirito contends that workers feel the FSHA and GNWT are “absolutely not” hearing their concerns.
“They came back to the table last Friday, and I think it showed clearly that they were not prepared to negotiate seriously and to avoid a strike,” she said. “It gave these workers no choice but to go out on the picket line on Monday.
“This is not what they wished for. What they were hoping was that the employer was going come back to the table to seriously try to negotiate a deal that could satisfy both parties, but here we are and we haven’t heard from them since. We are hoping to go back to the table at any point with the employer and try to get a deal and get these workers back to work.”
Spirito said the striking workers are feeling the support of the community of Fort Simpson.
“These [workers] are people that [residents] know,” she said. “These are people that they see in their homes consistently. These are members of the community that live there. These are people that speak their language. These are people that they’re comfortable with, and they support them, absolutely. There’s no doubt about it.”
Spirito is hoping that the FSHA and GNWT return to the negotiating table posthaste so that the ongoing strike doesn’t drag on.
“The fact that the local housing authorities don’t have the money to fairly compensate their workers shows there’s a real systemic issue here, where there’s chronic under-funding of housing programs, and [they are] underpaying these workers, chronically, across the territories,” she said.
The FSHA was contacted for comment on the strike but did not respond by press time. This story will be updated should there be comment.
