Halifax Water Workers Defend Pensions

Haligonians know that Halifax Water workers are on 10 picket lines around the city, but the president of Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 1431 wonders if residents know the whole truth about the situation. Heather Corkum tells Our Times that the so-called "strike" was actually a lockout initiated by the utility. "We did advise our employer at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, May 19th that we would be commencing strike action at 8 a.m. However, the employer got ahead of us and locked our members out at approximately 12:15 a.m. When the unionized
members who were working the late shift tried to access the Operations Depot on Cowie Hill Road, they were denied access. When other members tried to start their shifts at 7 a.m. at the administrative building on Cowie Hill Rd, they were also denied access, and security guards
were set up."

A May 19 meeting at the Labour Board did not produce the results that Corkum or Local 227 president Dave Dort had hoped to achieve. She says that despite an effort to reach a mutually acceptable collective agreement, it was unattained after more than 10 hours of negotiations.

"Unfortunately, at the end of the day, the employer would not give us a proposal in writing, and came back, instead, with a verbal offer that did not move anywhere toward our offer. I would actually argue that it moved further away." Talks broke off at 8:30 that evening and, as of May
25, no further meetings were scheduled.

THE HEART OF THE LOCKOUT
Threats to the existing Halifax Water Pension Plan are at the heart of the lockout, and have been mounting for over a year. "Halifax Water came to the bargaining table in February of 2014 with the mandate to cut our current Halifax Water Pension Plan benefits by 33 per cent," explains Corkum. "They advised that they would not settle a collective agreement with either CUPE Local 1431 or CUPE Local 227 until the cuts to the pension were agreed upon. In September of 2014, they told us that they just could not afford the current service cost of approx 27 per cent of payroll and needed to get that current service cost to 18 per cent."

When the pension plan's actuarial valuation was presented by its actuary, Eckler Limited, last June, CUPE hired an independent actuary to check out the numbers. "The union and the employer formed a joint committee to evaluate the plan and to try to come to an agreement on what changes could be made that would be best for the members of the plan, and would continue to protect our futures," Corkum recalls. There was nothing suspect in Eckler's work, however CUPE's national pension specialist, Kevin Skerrett, considered the estimates of returns on the
plan too conservative, thus driving up the cost of pension contributions.

WORKERS WILLING TO NEGOTIATE
Corkum argues that developing constructive solutions for maintaining the pension plan has proven one-sided, with Halifax Water refusing to accept realistic suggestions. "We have shown the employer that the plan does not have to be so ultra conservative. We have shown them that we are willing to accept cuts to our pension in order to save Halifax Water tens of millions of dollars over the next 10 to 15 years. We have been giving, and conceding, and, ultimately, negotiating with ourselves for the past 15 months. We have made major cuts that have gotten the current service cost of the plan down from the current 27 per cent of payroll to approximately 19 per cent -- an immediate savings of eight per cent of the employers' payroll -- and Halifax Water will not agree to these changes."

Halifax Water also initially rejected the idea of containing the cost of the pension by bringing in a maximum-earnings base to correspond with Canada Revenue Agency's $144,000 (approx.) cap. When the utility eventually accepted this arrangement, Corkum says it made a major error by allowing for one per cent inflation per year on that amount.

"This actually increases the cost of the plan that they have been insisting is so high for over a year. It also only benefits the highest earners at Halifax Water and not one unionized employee. Until we can get past these two major stumbling blocks, I cannot see us reaching a deal with Halifax Water."

PRIDE IN OUR WORK
As of May 25, Corkum says 335 of Halifax Water's roughly 440 employees are locked out of their workplaces. She believes that the quality of municipal water and wastewater service is potentially compromised, as managers attempt to conduct business as usual at work sites.

"Our members are highly qualified, specially trained and extremely conscientious workers who take pride in our work. Even if we believe that management are qualified to run water and wastewater treatment facilities (and we do not believe they all are), there are simply not enough of them to do the work. They are currently working 12- to 15-hour days, doing jobs they are not used to doing and they are doing it seven days per week. It is simply not sustainable."

Halifax residents are correct to wonder about long-range implications as the lockout drags into its second week. Corkum says everything from water quality, to accurate water bills, to timely repair of water and wastewater infrastructure is on the line when unionized Halifax Water employees are on the picket line. "These are things that are going to suffer as the non-union and managers who are trying to keep up with it now get burned out. And won't their work suffer? Isn't non-union and management's work important too? Who is doing their work if they are
doing ours?"

On May 23, CUPE Nova Scotia president Danny Cavanagh joined the picketing Halifax Water workers outside a downtown wastewater treatment plant, accompanied by around 50 like-minded Canada Post workers on lunch break. Once a Level II certified water, wastewater and water distribution operator himself, although never a Halifax Water employee, he agrees with Corkum that the unionized workers deserve better. "Some of our members went to end their shifts on Monday night, and when they went to return the employers' stuff back to the shop, as they would at the end of any shift, and they couldn't access the building. So that's why we contend that they were locked out. Halifax Water contends something different, they haven't really been clear about it. They said somebody notified them that they were going to be on strike the next morning at 8 o'clock and they had to protect their buildings." Employees' key cards, used to open security gates, were suddenly invalid. "For clarity, our members are not criminals or crooks," quips Cavanagh.

PENSIONS MEAN DIGNIFIED RETIREMENT
He's familiar with false arguments commonly used to erode workers' pensions and wages. "We hear this all the time, not just from Halifax Water," says Cavanagh. "We think they are trying to capitalize on those nice sound bites that 'pensions are unsustainable,' but the locals have already agreed to essentially $25 million in reductions around pension." The provincial CUPE president states that supporting workers fighting for pension plans amounts to supporting dignified retirement, as many pensionless Nova Scotian seniors are reliant upon frighteningly small Old
Age Security cheques.

He mentions the unfairness of reneging on the very pension offered as a hiring incentive. "A young sister who was on the picket line told me that when she went to work at Halifax Water a few years ago, when she was 23, one of the big promotions Halifax Water used at the time was about how if you spent 30 years of your working life at Halifax Water, you'd have a good pension at the end of the day."

Cavanagh scoffs at any suggestion that Halifax Water can't afford its pension plan. "In Halifax, what we have is a CAO, Carl Yates, who has been reported to have received $60,000 in wage increases since 2008. I think in 2008, his salary was around $136,000; last year it was $196,000. And that's only for one management person." He adds that two years ago, Halifax's auditor general "tried to chastise" the utility for its 3:1 worker-to-manager ratio. "And what's even more troubling at this point is that while people are on the picket line, the security brought in are real strike-breakers [from Miami-based AFIMAC Global's Ontario subsidiary]. So how is Halifax Water, if they're so cash-strapped, going to have an abundance of managers on site for the day-to-day routine, pay those managers who knows what, and be able to pay for a high-priced security company that really provides union-busting, right up to scabs, if they need to bring in replacement workers, to the tune of $100,000 a week or more?"

It's a good question. One that falls outside the parameters of the Halifax Water public relations "fluff" that frustrates Corkum. She stresses that the lockout, with all its associated expenses, benefits no one. "It is important to note that the Halifax Water Pension Plan includes union, non-union and management members. It is also important to note that both locals 1431 and 227 have members who are not in the Halifax Water plan and who are still in the Halifax Regional Municipality plan. Their collective agreement was, and continues to be, held up over pension issues that have nothing to do with these members."