Striking town workers picket recreation centre in Hay River

Unionized workers for the town of Hay River set up a picket line at the town recreation centre this morning.

Mayor Andrew Cassidy is asking the public to be patient.

"Hopefully the figure skating club understands, minor hockey understands, the speed skating and the swim club understands... It's unfortunate that our recreation activities and the user groups are the ones that are going to suffer, however, at this time we fully anticipate disruptions to our recreation programming," he said. 

The main sticking point in negotiations between the 30 unionized workers and the town has been wages.

The Union of Northern Workers was asking for a three-year deal with a 2.5 per cent increase in the first year and 2.25 in following years. The mayor says the council is unified in its position and one per cent is the town's final offer.

Today the union softened its position slightly.

"Two per cent will get us a deal here," said UNW president Todd Parsons. "Do the right thing, let's get us back to work"

When asked if the union was changing its position, Parsons said, "Two, 2.25 — that'll be decided by the bargaining team, I don't know how many more signals I can send to this employer."

Some town services will continue despite the labour dispite. The mayor says garbage and sewer pump out will be taken care of.

"It's not going to be business as usual but we'll try to keep going as best we can with the staff we have available," says Cassidy.

"We're consolidating all our administrative functions at the fire hall. So bills will still be paid, we're encouraging people to go online to make use of those services. Call the town hall for any general inquiries."

Groups that use the arena are worried about the stalemate in negotiations.

If the strike had gone ahead when initially planned on Friday, a novice hockey tournament would have been disrupted..
That went off as planned because the union did not have its paperwork in place to start the strike.

Hockey practices and other skates have been cancelled this week.

"The kids won't be able to do their tests to get to the next level," said Sherri Osted, president of the Hay River Figure Skating Club.

The club is scheduled to host next weekend's territorial figure skating competition

"This is their event, this is what they look forward to the whole year," said Osted. "They're used to skating with their friends from other clubs, they're used to having that competitive spirit. They're pretty well devastated that this would be missed."