By Natalie Geddes

Strike over, crop insurance workers reach tentative agreement

Jun 24, 2011 | 1:25 PM

By Natalie Geddes
 

Saskatchewan MLAs were preparing to come back to the legislature on Monday, but that will no longer be necessary as striking crop insurance workers have reached a tentative deal with the provincial government.

Agricultural Minister Bob Bjornerud hopes everything will be back to normal after the weekend.

“Crop insurances employees are returning to work. I’m hoping by Monday morning we have a full complement of employees,” said Bjornerud.

The week unfolded with a war of words between the leader of the Saskatchewan General Employees Union (SGEU) Bob Bymoen and Premier Brad Wall.

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SGEU reacts

Meanwhile, the SGEU say that they would have preferred to have negotiated a deal rather than having one imposed.

Chair of the bargaining committee, Alan Evans says it wasn't a total loss.

“While I can’t say that I’m pleased with the deal, I am pleased that we negotiated the settlement that we achieved a lot of the things we were looking for,” said Evans.

Evans adds that it was never their goal for this to become political.

Strike backs up insurance claims

As of Friday morning the program had received 6500 unseeded acreage claims and that number is still growing according to minister Bjornerud.

Bjornerud is concerned that the disagreement between the government and the SGEU has hurt the image of the program.

“We're going to have to go back to work, whether it's on my end or the employees end out there, just to ensure the farmers out there that we are here,” said Bjornerud.

New agreement contains wage increase

The new agreement has some small enhancements from the original offer of a 5.5 per cent wage increase over three years. An additional 0.25 per cent increase was added for year three.

The tentative agreement is retroactive to 2009 and expires in a little over a year.

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