Saturday, March 15, 2008

Union protests Sask. govt. action...

This is from canadianpress. The Wall government has not wasted much time before beginning to tangle with labor carrying on the Conservative tradition.
I can imagine that MacKinnon probably does not have a very great rapport with his faculty or support workers but who knows these days. We have Buzz Hargrove negotiation no strike contracts so maybe Wall should get in touch with him and get his support.

Union alleges Sask. gov't sought support on labour bill prior to its tabling
20 hours ago

SASKATOON — An internal e-mail has prompted allegations of lying and accusations of conflict of interest involving Saskatchewan's labour minister.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees says it has obtained an e-mail that suggests that the Saskatchewan government had already received support for an essential services bill before it was tabled in the legislature.

Bill 5, which was introduced Dec. 19, would force unions and employers to establish agreements on which public-service workers should be banned from striking.

"Just spoke with (University of Saskatchewan) President MacKinnon and he'll support us on this publicly so that's cool," said the e-mail from director of media services Bonny Braden to Herman Hulshof, director of communications for the Ministry of Advanced Education, Employment and Labour.

"Can you just let me in on the paper prep work too if you wouldn't mind, just want to help, not interfere," it said.

The e-mail is dated Dec. 14 - five days before the legislation was made public.

Labour Minister Rob Norris, who faced a rough reception at the CUPE convention in Saskatoon on Friday, insisted he did not consult anyone outside government before the bills were brought forward.

"This is pretty categoric," Norris told convention delegates.

"I did not consult with any stakeholder prior regarding the essential legislation until after the legislation was tabled."

Labour groups throughout the province have been angry since Premier Brad Wall announced in December that the legislation would be tabled. Norris invited feedback from key stakeholders after the bills were introduced.

But CUPE president Tom Graham said Friday that the e-mail appears to indicate otherwise.

"From our perspective the issue is in fact why is the government lying?" said Graham.

"We asked the question very specifically had he consulted or anyone from his department consulted with Peter MacKinnon and he said 'no.' And then we produce an e-mail that says Peter MacKinnon was asked and would support it publicly."

"We suspected all along that they had in fact been talking to certain parties about this legislation prior to it being tabled," said Graham.

Graham also said because Norris worked at the University of Saskatchewan prior to being elected for the Saskatchewan Party in November, it was a conflict to name him as labour minister. At the time, 2,400 CUPE support workers at the University of Regina and the University of Saskatchewan were on strike.

Braden, reached by phone Friday evening, said she's known MacKinnon for about a decade and was aware of his position on essential services. She insisted she called him "about his take" on the issue as a possible media source.

"I was not talking to him about the legislation," she told The Canadian Press. "No one raised the legislation at all in those conversations. It wasn't about the act."

"I didn't discuss the legislation with him because I hadn't seen it."

Braden also said she had "no idea" what Hulshof would have done with the information that MacKinnon supported essential services and didn't know if he passed it along to Norris.

-By Jennifer Graham in Regina

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