{"id":66181,"date":"2015-12-03T20:52:53","date_gmt":"2015-12-04T02:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=66181"},"modified":"2015-12-03T20:52:53","modified_gmt":"2015-12-04T02:52:53","slug":"nova-scotia-union-snubs-government-ultimatum-over-tentative-contract-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/12\/03\/nova-scotia-union-snubs-government-ultimatum-over-tentative-contract-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Nova Scotia union snubs government ultimatum over tentative contract vote"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nova<\/a>
Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU)
(Photo from NSGEU’s website<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

HALIFAX\u2014A union’s snub of a government ultimatum over a contract vote saw Nova Scotia’s deputy premier adopt a more conciliatory tone Thursday.<\/p>\n

In a letter sent to the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union the government said it would consider the withdrawal of its tentative contract offer if a ratification vote wasn’t concluded by Monday.<\/p>\n

The letter, sent Wednesday, also demanded that the union make its intentions known to the government by 9 a.m. Thursday.<\/p>\n

NSGEU president Joan Jessome ignored the deadline, saying the government had no right to tell the union how to conduct its business.<\/p>\n

Deputy premier Diana Whalen later responded by downplaying the ultimatum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no time frame at the moment,\u201d said Whalen. \u201cOur message to our partners is that they please follow through . . . and let their membership vote on this agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whalen wouldn’t directly address what would happen if a vote isn’t held by Monday. She also wouldn’t say why the government had changed its tone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes time to consider the options and as a government we have no intention of doing something in haste,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Premier Stephen MacNeil has said options including legislation would be considered if wage settlements couldn’t be reached with the province’s 9,000 teachers and with 7,600 civil servants.<\/p>\n

The teachers’ union rejected a tentative deal earlier this week, prompting the NSGEU to delay its vote on a similar contract offer.<\/p>\n

Jessome said her union was justified in ignoring the government’s ultimatum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government has no authority, and no employer has any authority on when to direct a union to hold a vote,\u201d said Jessome.<\/p>\n

She said a vote would be held, but it would be conducted on the union’s schedule.<\/p>\n

Jessome said she would be consulting with the union’s executive and bargaining committee later Thursday to determine their next move.<\/p>\n

The government is offering teachers and civil servants wage increases of three per cent over four years, although both deals include a wage freeze in the first two years.<\/p>\n

The NSGEU’s deal would apply to civil servants including sheriff’s deputies, correctional officers, administrative personnel, social workers and probation officers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HALIFAX\u2014A union’s snub of a government ultimatum over a contract vote saw Nova Scotia’s deputy premier adopt a more conciliatory …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":66182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-66181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-original","mauthors-keith-doucette","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}