It’s the blame game between the St. John’s Airport Authority and the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC).
On Friday after 5 days of negotiations and a 5-day recess, the federal mediator advised that he would not bring the parties back to the table and is standing down the process.
PSAC has released a statement saying that the St. John’s Airport Authority is refusing to negotiate with striking workers and the St. John’s Airport Authority released a statement saying that PSAC has maintained its unrealistic wage demand.
What is above opinion is that negotiations to end the six-month long strike through the use of a federal mediator have failed.
“On February 26 we advised the mediator that PSAC’s negotiating team is ready to return to mediation and continue the negotiations which were started two weeks ago,” said Jeannie Baldwin, Regional Executive Vice-President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
“We have worked hard since talks resumed to try to accommodate this employer’s demands but we cannot be expected to do all the work.”
Baldwin is now calling on St. John’s Airport Authority President & CEO Keith Collins to seek a new mandate from his board of directors and return to the table immediately to negotiate with PSAC and settle the strike.
The airport authority maintains that PSAC’s bargaining team has taken an inflexible approach to negotiations and has created a win/lose situation rather than the compromise approach that is required in order to reach a settlement.
“While this was the first time the union opened a discussion on our issues, it was clear they brought no flexibility to the table – in fact, its response to our proposals has further widened the divide on the Authority’s critical business issues,” said Collins.
A press conference on the issue is scheduled for Monday.
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