Questions arise about how much support the strike enjoys within the membership.
[O]ne of the intriguing things about this strike is how much grumbling there has been from union members since that strike vote — a vote in which 75 to 80 per cent, according to sources, didn’t even participate.
While the union’s leadership has rightfully maintained that any vote has to be based on those who showed up, it’s also hard to ignore the complaints that have emerged about how difficult it was for some members to vote while other members received “special treatment.” (One frequent complaint is that while most had to trek down to SGEU headquarters or other locations to cast their strike ballots, corrections workers didn’t.) Other signs of dissension in the ranks include grouching over the “special levy” imposed on members to compensate the guards who have been out for the entire three weeks.
An open thread for SGEU members, if you’re so inclined – there’s no need to reveal your identity. Or if you prefer, send an email (include SGEU in the subject line) and I’ll post your comments on your behalf.
I’m betting the taxpayers of SK are saving a lot of money by having the SGEU out on strike!
Don’t be too helpful there Kate…..
Several years ago during a stike by some teachers in some districts in AB, all AB teachers were required to make contributions to the striking ones.
Actually, the taxpayers are LOSING money on the strike. Remember the RCMP that have been flown in AND are staying in a hotel AND eating AND getting paid their regular salaries by the government of Saskatchewan. I’m guessing we are looking at 100,000 a day or more.
The 100,000 number comes from where? To do a true calculation of cost, we will need three specifics. First, the actual cost of replacement, second the amount of wages not being paid. Third, and by far the most important is the final wage settlement. This has two components, one finite, one fuzzy. The finite is the actual increase multiplied by total wages, multiplied by days off the job. The fuzzy, is how much was saved by driving down the wage demand by letting them stay on strike. Whatever the dollar, it is imperative to remember that evrything negotiated goes forward forever as it is now the new base for future negotaitions. 3% of a smaleer number is a smaller increase down the road. This number is subjective and manipulative. Bottom line, it is likely going to be a wash or a minor cost. I have tried to keep this simple so that a left mind can grasp the elementary fnancial concepts presented here. If you need further clarification, I feel sorry for you.
Does anyone have an idea of what SGEU members earn in salary and pension compared to their public sector counterparts, if there are any? I have always been under the impression that they earn more in both categories which always makes it difficult to sympathiize with them. Can anyone provide numbers? If they earn more and this strike is mostly about money, which every strike seems to be, I would support a Reagan approach to solving the problem.
Money saved
———–
800 correction workers on strike
in 2000, the average full-time income for correctional service officers was $40,705 per year
(Or about 162 per day)
money not being spent = 800 x 162 = 129,600
(per day)
replacements cost
—————–
Let’s assume only 85% replacement so 680 RCMP officers
assume all officer have 3 or more years experience so thier salery is $64,059 per year
(or about 256.23 per day)
money spent on saleries = 640 * 250 = 163,900
(per day)
Hotel room:
Assume only 60% have to be billetted and put 2 in a room
so 204 rooms at 50$ per room (average) = 10,200 per day
Let’s give them $8 bucks a meal for three meals so $24 for meals per RCMP (only for those being billetted)
So 408 times $24 for meals = 9,792
So:
saleries: 163,900
rooms: 10,200
meals: 9,792
cost: 183,892
savings: 129,600
Net loss: 54,292 (per day)
sorry, I guess we are only losing 50,000 a day (using my pretty conservative estimates) – I still bet the final number is closer to 100,000 (there is no way RCMP only get $24 a day for meals for example)
Was that simple enough “so that a left mind can grasp the elementary fnancial [sic] concepts presented here”?
That’s what I mean about the left mind. Your wage component is out by fringe. As a unionized employee I am going to aasume the cost of EI, CPP, benefits, pension WCB etc. work out to maybe an additional 30%. This means additional savings to the employer are approx 39,000. Tha takes it down to 16000 cost to the taxpayer. We are still missing one finite number. Let’s assume they settle at 5%. This works out to another 8400 per day, bringing cost down to 7600 per day. We have not even touched on the fuzzy, or the going forward. As I said, a wash or slight cost. In addition do not forget the savings on other components of the SGEU who are currently out on the line and have NOT been replaced.
If SGEU workers don’t want to work, that is fine with me. I’m willing to pay more to the replacements who want to do the job.
While I understand that everyone wants more and that you need more as inflation goes up; Telling me you are not willing to do the job for less is not the way to win my support. Try working hard. Being efficient. Doing an outstanding job. All 3 are lost in union shops where raises go out on time worked rather than competence and enthusiasm.
Refusing to do your job just because you don’t want to is a reason to fire you not to give you a raise.
“…I’m betting the taxpayers of SK are saving a lot of money by having the SGEU out on strike!…”
They’ll make up for it when the strike is over and they have to work overtime at time-and-half & double-time.
Anyone still remember SGEU parkworkers at Duck Mountain in the summer of 2003??
You know when a bunch of union hacks ripped up the flowerbeds at the entrance to the park because the people in the park planted the flowers without waiting for their union to do it.
The explanation was that volunteers doing union work took hours away from the union workers.
SGEU wants me to believe all kinds of good things about them…. teachers, snowplow drivers, they do all kinds of good things. How am I supposed to respect an organization that uses such logic. Entitled to the hours?? If that specific job is done your employer should easily be able to find you another to do.
I think the SGEU has little public sypmathy. With a declining population in Sask. (18,000 taxpayers under Lorne Calvert’s watch), why has the civil service in the same time period increased by almost 10,000 workers? Would that have anything to do with buying votes for the upcoming fall election?
The gov’t is the largest employer in the province. These employees provide a service that does not add anything back to the economy. They are simply overpaid paper-pushers who would sure get their asses kicked by employers who expect a full days work.
Unions are unnecessary today with all the gov’t legislation regarding work conditions and labor standards etc.
I agree with Clinton’s comment above; fire the lot of them and hire those who want a job and who want to work. If you can sit on strike for weeks, you are paid too much.
This RCMP/cost thing has me thinking. I can only find references to 250 RCMP officers on duty replacing the SGEU people. Does anyone know how many RCMP are on duty replacing the strikers? In my previous posts I was refuting imaginary numbers based on 640 officers. I am beginning to believe there are considerably less than that.
Being an born in Saskatchewan and having spent half my life there, there are times I do miss calling it home. Watching from Alberta, it seems to me that every time Saskatchewan starts to get on the right track, either the unions start their trouble or the moonbats manage to elect another NDP govt. You would think by now that they would get the message that it aint workin. My company has the opportunity to drill some wells in Sask and will likely do so. Should things go well, it would be nice to have the re-location option but as things are, its not in the works.
It’s facinating how everything in the MSM has a left wing bias or is wrong, unless of course, it confirms YOUR biases. The whole article is based on information that is “according to sources” (I’ve lost count how many times that was decried at SDA) and is biased against the SGEU to the extreme. A perfect example is how Murray Mandryk first complains that the snowplow operators went on strike just before a major snow fall, neglecting to mention that they returned to work voluntarily when it was demonstrated that management’s contingency plans were ineffective. Then he complains that other SGEU employees will have to walk the picket lines in place of the snowplow operators. Of course, the NDP is in league with the union, and not negotiating with the SGEU proves it.(??!!) Goebbels would be impressed with Mandryk’s sophistry.
lberia: Mandryk is correct. We had two snowstorms that week. The one Mandryk is talking about is the one Kate drove home in.
Also on the replacement thread, don’t forget out of scope and management are also replacing the corrections workers, not just RC’s.
Cheers,
lance
So how many SGEU members have chimed in here??
Just a memory now but….I recall living in Regina in 1979….I believe that was the year that Blakeney left the SGEU out on strike an extra month ( can’t recall if it was 2 or 3 total ) to save costs…it worked!
I do not recall being inconvenienced one bit by the strike….and today 20,000 SGEU members?
WHO cares if 250 or 680 or even 800 corrections officers are being replaced by the high priced help?
The taxpayers are saving money…that is until the dipper government settles ( caves in ) and sacrifices the interest of the gainfully employed taxpayer to the noisy demands of the union extortionists……………..
http://www.taxpayer.com/main/news.php?news_id=2468
When they return they get a “SIGNING BONUS” that pays them them for the lost wages.
You didnt think they sacrificed anything, did you?
Iberia – This is not my only source. I have friends who work in government who confirm that this was one very quietly announced strike vote.
A previous estimate of how much an RCMP officer would make replacing a corrections worker does not take into account that these hours are paid as “overtime” therefore at a much higher rate than the calculation took into account.
Add in the travel expenses and incidentals and you have a very significant bill for their services. I know this. I have a member in my family who is presently using his extensive talents as a police officer being used to babysit jailbirds.
That is the other issue here. Just what is our government doing allowing jail guards the right to strike in the first place. What an absolutely rediculous use of our national police force! Just when do we come to our senses on this right to strike issue when it relates to “essential services”?
Kate:
If there is a problem with the strike vote then complaints should be made to the Labour Relations Board. Even though some people may think that unions are run by wild eyed socialists hell bent on anarchy, they are highly regulated, and unions and their executives risk fines and/or jail if they do not follow these regulations.
http://www1.servicecanada.gc.ca/en/lp/spila/clli/irlc/Sask-e.PDF
Trade Union Act
Page 4
Strike Vote
It is an unfair labour practice for an employee, a trade union, or any other person to declare, authorize, or take part in a strike unless a strike vote has been taken by secret ballot among all employees in the unit affected by the collective bargaining and a majority of those voting have voted in favour of a strike. No strike vote by secret ballot is required in a bargaining unit of 2 employees or less. s.11(2)(d)Upon application by the trade union or affected employees, the Board may decide to supervise, conduct, or scrutinize a strike or ratification vote or a vote on the employer’s final offer. ss.11(8) and 45(2)
Iberia,
and who exactly is going to fine them? The Sask Labour board? That would be the same body who engineered the firing of Walter Matkowski for standing up to the union controlled and NDP supported employer re-education unit. Don’t for a minute think that Bymoen and his cronys didn’t think they had the government by the short and curlys until the storm got a lot worse than they thought it would. He and the union got caught with their pants down and they paid for it in the PR battle.
You can quote the TRA until you’re red in the face it means nothing in this province.
DT:
Sort of off topic, but Matkowski’s claims have not been proven yet, though it seems that you have already made your mind up about what happened and whose fault it is.
SLB is comprised of three lawyers (chair and 2 vice) 9 employer reps and 8 employee reps. If anything, one could argue that the SLB would be biased against labour.
Iberia, I have a family member who has seen what happens when complaints are made about accessible voting on strikes, and all sorts of other offensive things. I’ve seen that same family member fined for choosing to work (to feed family & pay bills) rather than picket, not to mention threatened, followed, smeared, etc.
I’m not buying that any concerns would be addressed effectively, and would ask for links to previous rulings to prove otherwise. Got any?
Candace:
You seem to be confusing your relative’s union with the LRB. What I gather is that your relative complained to the union, rather than the LRB about strike vote precedures because he/she was not happy with either the vote or the process. Crossing the picket line is not a good thing. Everyone knows that. While I don’t condone violence, I’m not surprised to hear about what happened. Let the police handle anything illegal.
As for links to previous rulings, I’m not a lawyer so you’ll have to do your own research. Maybe there is something here:
http://www.sasklabourrelationsboard.com/faq.htm#13
I have come to the conclusion that unions are following dions message. It is wrong to work for easy money as it is bad for the economy.
perhaps instead of billetting and feeding the replacements in top rung hotels we billet and feed the inmates of the institutions in the homes of the propogandists who suggest that the guards are glorified paper pushers. This is not a romper room scenario and these men and women constantly put their lives on the line to insure that the court sentenced criminals are controlled and not running at large.