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Opposition Leader Roger Grimes today asked the Premier to explain his
reasoning as to why he broke promises to the unions made in his speech to
the NAPE Annual General Meeting in 2001 and imposed a wage freeze without
consultation. The Opposition Leader is also questioning why the Premier
continues to state that he will not negotiate in public, but contrary to
this approach continues to do so. Today in a media scrum Premier Williams
stated that he is not ruling out legislating striking workers back to work.
"This Premier seems to be full of broken promises and contradictions," said
Mr. Grimes. "I was pleased to hear in the Throne Speech that government will
be working co-operatively and constructively with the public sector unions
to negotiate new collective agreements, but the results of other promises
from previous speeches contradict this approach. As demonstrated with his
declaration of a wage freeze, I am very skeptical that the Premier will
actually follow through with this commitment. He has already admitted that
he did not consult with the unions before announcing his wage freeze, the
very issue that could lead to a strike.
"The Premier stated in his September 20th, 2001, speech that
‘if some unexpected, unanticipated circumstance arises, I will come back to
you and ask for your help and co-operation in finding a resolution that we
can all live with.’ How can the unions or the people of the province believe
what this Premier is now stating, especially after his heavy handed approach
of unilaterally announcing a wage freeze in January?"
Mr. Grimes also said that Premier Williams continues to negotiate in
public, even though he continuously states that he will not. "After stating
in today’s question period that he would not negotiate in public, the
Premier went outside the House and told the media that he is not ruling out
legislating public sector workers back to work if they decide to go on
strike. The Premier cannot have it both ways, is he or is he not going to
negotiate in public? Similar to his announcement of the wage freeze, it
seems he will negotiate in public when it serves his own agenda." |