About 200 unionized employees of the Department of National Defence and their supporters gathered Thursday for a demonstration outside the entrance to CFB Esquimalt.
The protesters, members of the Union of National Defence Employees, targeted a recent $800-million contract with a French multi-national company to do maintenance work on Canada’s Arctic patrol vessels. The union members are in Victoria for their national convention.
John MacLennan, Ottawa-based national president of the 17,000-strong Union of National Defence Employees, said the government is taking huge financial and security risks by contracting out defence work to foreign companies.
“We have collective agreements so we know what we will cost and we know we can react to anything if military ships need to be deployed,” MacLennan said.
“We want to do that work and we want the work to stay within the federal government and the public service.”
The federal government announced the multi-million contract with the Canadian subsidiary of French defence giant, Thales, last week.
The contract begins with an eight-year, $800-million term to service the Arctic vessels, but the work could extend to 35 years for $5.2 billion.
Officials said Thales will be required to hire subcontractors to complete the work in regions across the country to ensure economic benefits.
Work is to be completed in Canada, except when the ships need work overseas.
Protesting workers also raised concerns about ongoing problems with the Phoenix pay system, which have left public servants underpaid, overpaid or not paid at all.
MacLennan said it’s time for government to get it fixed.
“We are also challenging the government to let them know you can’t have people going to work without getting paid,” he said.
The glitch-plagued Phoenix system was bought by the Stephen Harper Conservative government.
The Liberal government has since contended it had no choice but to use Phoenix because no payroll workers were left when it took power.
In May, the federal government revealed it is spending $142 million to hire 200 temporary workers, on top of 300 previously hired, to deal with the problems. Over the past three years, the system has cost an extra $402 million; the project’s initial price tag was $300 million.
T. Mark Miller, the union’s Victoria-based B.C. vice-president, said the payroll problems have been affecting members at CFB Esquimalt, where they do tasks as varied as administrative work and fighting fires.
Miller said some have not been receiving negotiated pay increases, while others have not received thousands of dollars in back pay. Some are refusing to do extra work because they expect it would upset the system.
“Do I have members not getting paid? Yes, I do,” he said.
“Do I have members owed thousands of dollars in back pay? Absolutely.”
— With a file from The Canadian Press
