Rebecca Lindell, Global News : Wednesday, July 11, 2012 9:05 PM
With a July 17 strike deadline looming, nuclear workers at the Chalk River Laboratories staged an “information” picket on Tuesday in the rural eastern Ontario town of Chalk River.
Waving signs with slogans of “No more concessions” and “Fair deal now,” the workers stopped cars and handed out pamphlets explaining what was at stake in the negotiations.
The message: any penny-pinching at the crown corporation will force nuclear scientists to look for new opportunities abroad, putting the health and safety of Canadians at risk.
“These people are highly sought out all over the world for their expertise in this type of industry. We would not want to see our members go abroad. We would not want to see Canada’s industry suffer, but it’s a fact of life that they are mobile,” said Gary Corbett, the president of the Public Institute of the Public Service of Canada.
Corbett said attracting and retaining top nuclear experts is crucial to the long-term health and safety of Canadians.
After a year of being without a contract, the nuclear workers are in negotiations over wages with Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.
The members include 700 people who perform tasks including operating the Chalk River reactor, conducting nuclear research and development, supporting CANDU nuclear power reactors worldwide, producing medical isotopes and managing nuclear waste.
“Any strategy based solely on the fiscal bottom line is ill-conceived especially when you consider the work that these people do for the safety and security of Canada, indeed the world,” Corbett said.
The parties are at the negotiating table and will be going through federal mediation on Thursday.
While he wouldn’t go into details of what is on the table, a spokesman for AECL said the company has already successfully struck agreements with six other unions since last year.
“We are very much in tune with the development of highly qualified people and getting our agreements lined up helps us deliver on that mandate,” Pat Quinn said.
A nuclear safety advocate said the union’s concerns raise questions about whether nuclear power should play a role in Canada’s future at all.
Gordon Edwards of the Canadian Coalition of Nuclear Responsibility said fewer young people have been getting into the field and several reactors have shut down during recent years – all of which could be writing on the wall for the union.
“The union has actually done us a service by warning us that we are losing our capabilities and expertise in the nuclear field and because of this the health and safety of Canadians is at risk,” Edwards said.
“When do we get to the point where if the health and safety of Canadians is at risk we decide to shut them down?”
The union stood by the importance of the industry and urged the government and AECL to ensure its survival by finding a fair settlement for employees.
Labour Minister Lisa Raitt said she hopes the parties can reach a deal without any external intervention.
“As I have always stated, the best solution in any dispute is the one that the parties reach themselves,” she said. “I continue to closely monitor the situation and encourage both parties to continue negotiations and reach an agreement prior to the date when they are in a strike or lockout position.”
Employees on the picket lines Wednesday morning said they hoped a strike could be avoided.
“We’ve never been on strike before,” said Henrik Andersen, a quality assurance specialist of 19 years. “We’ve always managed to get a deal last minute and that’s what we are hoping for, but if not, we will fight the good fight.”
While the union contends the negotiations could heighten risk in the long-term, it and AECL have a contingency plan in place to ensure workers oversee the safety of nuclear reactors and the production of medical isotopes in case of a strike.
“This activity in no way compromises the safe operation of the Chalk River Laboratories, or the reliable supply of isotopes to the medical community,” said Carly Wolff, the spokeswoman for Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver.
If the members actually strike on July 17, it would be the second union of nuclear scientists to go on strike this summer. Eight hundred workers at Candu Energy, a separate employer, returned to the negotiating table Wednesday after hitting picket lines Monday.