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Carl Veistrup’s Letter to |
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Carl Veistrup, a former longtime SGEU elected official wrote a letter to the Regina Leader Post. On January 15, 2008 the Leader Post published a shortened version of this letter.
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR January 6, 2008 This letter is in response to the ongoing labour dispute between Saskatchewan Government and General Employees Union (SGEU) and their staff (CEP Local 481) To begin you have to go back in time to 1982 when Grant Devine took power and locked horns with the labour movement and in particular SGEU. SGEU at that time as well as now is made up of numerous bargaining units totaling 60 plus. The largest of these is the Public Service (PS/GE) which makes up little over half of the total membership of SGEU. This is important to remember as this is one issue that is at the heart of the current impasse in collective bargaining between SGEU and their staff. During the conservative rule SGEU arguably became the voice of labour in this province. You had people like Judy McKenzie, George Rosenau, and Patsy Gallagher to name just a few take on Grant Devine, the Provincial Government and their right wing agenda. At this time all of SGEU sat down as a common front to deal with the government of the day. With the election of Roy Romanow and the NDP there was a change within SGEU and a new group that took over the PS/GE bargaining unit. While there remained a common front in SGEU it was in name only. The solidarity within SGEU was no more. There came new direction within the elected structure of the PS/GE. In the past you had negotiating committees elected to bargain the Collective agreement and then go back to their respective jobs. The PS/GE negotiating committee evolved into a full-time assignment for the negotiating committee members. The current practice of the PS/GE committee being off work full time has continued. This is a practice that does not take place in other provincial government unions or for that matter other labour organizations of a similar size. So what does this have to do with the current labour dispute? The environment within SGEU has worsened including the growing rift between the elected PS/GE leadership and a majority of bargaining units within SGEU. The other elected members are outnumbered when it comes to voting on issues like trying to settle this ongoing labour dispute. So you now have a situation where a handful of individuals within the SGEU elected structure are refusing to bargain collectively, have initiated a lock out and are themselves performing work of the CEP bargaining (Can you say SCAB). A majority of bargaining units within SGEU have been pushing for a resumption in talks with an aim to reach a settlement, without success. At the end of the day the damage that SGEU has done not only to their own members, but to the labour movement as a whole will only be measured in time. Suffice it to say that when times get tough, who amongst this group of PS/GE elected officials that are behind the lockout and concerted effort to break CEP Local 481 will remain. I suspect they will slip off into the sunset and let others pick up the pieces. The rank and file members may also want to ask their elected representatives just how many union dollars have pocketed by elected officials doing the work of CEP 481 since the lockout has been implemented. While they are at it they may want to find out what the total compensation paid to the PS/GE negotiating committee has been since the early 1990’s, and measure that against other comparable organizations. They may be surprised at the levels of compensation of some elected officials. Is this dispute about what is fair compensation for the staff who work for SGEU, or about maintaining their own level of compensation? It is also interesting that an organization such as SGEU does not have an Executive director. Is this because they cannot recruit anyone, or choose not to fill the position? Just who is carrying out this role currently and what role is the(s) individual playing in this labour dispute? I would encourage all rank and file members of SGEU and in particular the PS/GE bargaining unit to insist that their leadership goes back and bargain a fair collective agreement. Finally it is time that the SFL and CLC took a stance on this issue. Saying that you are working behind the scenes to get the parties back to the table is not good enough. If SGEU was any other employer there would be a concerted effort by the trade Union movement in this province to force this employer to stop doing the work of CEP Local 481 (can you say scab again??) and return to the bargaining table. If SGEU does not comply immediately then they should be suspended from the house of labour until such time as they demonstrate that they are a Trade Union and a fair Employer.
Carl Veistrup
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