Dawson City Citizen's Forum

Dawson City workers seek to unionize
Last Updated: Thursday, October 22, 2009 | 11:03 AM CT Comments5Recommend3
CBC News
Municipal workers in Dawson City, Yukon, are asking a federal labour board to let them join the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

If the Canada Industrial Relations Board approves their request, about 20 Town of Dawson City workers will become part of the national union, which already represents federal government workers in town and employees of the Klondike Visitors Association.

The move to unionize in Dawson City is a relatively recent development, possibly spurred by municipal workers in Watson Lake signing their first contract this past summer, said Jean-François Deslauriers, the union's northern executive vice-president.

"People get inspired when they see that working conditions of their counterparts in other cities and towns around get better, so it sounds like people in Dawson chose to go that route," Deslauriers told CBC News on Wednesday.

He said people generally join unions because they want "job security, fairness, wages and … making sure that they have a recourse in how they're being treated, so having a grievance process in place."

Deslauriers said the Dawson City employees initiated the unionization process by signing cards. Then the union sent an application to the Canada Industrial Relations Board for a decision, which he said could come within the next three weeks.

"We have to wait for the board to come back to us with their ruling [on] whether we get the certification," he said.

If the board approves the unionization request, Deslauriers said the next step would be for the Public Service Alliance of Canada to negotiate the municipal workers' first collective agreement.