Prince Albert City Hall. (file photo/paNOW Staff)

By Susan McNeil

City Hall job action

City workers to start job action tomorrow

Aug 9, 2023 | 2:00 PM

It isn’t a full strike – yet – but starting tomorrow, inside city workers will begin job action by working to rule and refusing tasks such as training.

CUPE local 882 spokesperson Cara Stelmaschuk said the goal is to get the city to negotiate.

“As of tomorrow at 8 a.m., our members will not be training anybody, managers, contractors or co-workers,” she said.

The city was given notice on Tuesday of the union’s intention to begin job action.

This is step one of job action.

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The first they would like to do is be able to negotiate, she said.

The city has offered an 11 per cent wage increase over four years for its inside workers and is refusing to budge.

Mayor Greg Dionne told paNOW on Tuesday that he believes the city has public support in its stance.

“The ball is in their park. We have no more money and we’ve made that quite clear,” he said. “I can’t go anywhere in the city without people coming up to me and saying ‘stand our ground.’”

Dionne said the general public that would be footing the increase through property taxes has not had an increase in their pay.

The union is asking for a 12 per cent raise, a difference of one per cent.

Stelmaschuk said the city came in with a final offer and she would like to see more negotiation and she is surprised that the city is not bending.

“Some of our executives have done this four times and they’re just completely befuddled. We don’t know where this is coming from. We don’t know why it’s working out this way this time,” she said.

At the moment the public will not see any change in operations and it will be business as usual. But inside City Hall, staff will not be helping with educate managers or co-workers on anything and that can have a big impact in areas like the finance department or wherever there was an update to a computer program.

The city said that it has never had a strike in its history and if workers do walk off the job, it would be the first time ever.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com