There you have it!
Previously, little appetite existed for city workers to unionize during my term as Mayor of Dawson, until now.
Unionizing our municipal workforce only two days into Mayor Jenkins’ term speaks volumes to the anticipated difficulties that may lie ahead for our town.
That says it all.
Personally, I believe the move to join the Yukon Employees Union provides a good strategy for our town staff. Given that Mayor Jenkins’ penchant for micromanaging precedes him, unionization will likely encourage the new mayor to behave appropriately toward city workers.
Many people foster the erroneous view that the mayor ‘runs’ the town. This posturing stance adopted by some mayors reveals an attempt to make it look like they are in charge and in control. It has the substance of the proverbial ‘paper tiger’. In reality, the mayor has only as much power as council gives him.
Certainly, a mayor wields influence, but not in terms of a ‘king’ pointing a bejeweled plump finger while bestowing favours and giving direction to staff members.
He can only give direction to the Town Manager and even then only with the consent of council by resolution.
The mayor’s ‘power’ reflects policy or bylaws previously adopted by council resolution with input from staff and the public.
Unfortunately there have been mayors in the past that didn’t respect existing procedural bylaws and policies and behaved as if the town was their personal fiefdom.
Let’s hope that Mayor Jenkins hasn’t lost his ability to learn a new and respectful attitude toward city staff and by extension, all of Dawson.
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In my first term as City Manager in Dawson City the crew signed up with the Teamsters. After a couple or three years they decertified again. I thought at the time that decertification was an achievement, but in retrospect it was a mistake.
I have administered a number of small communities after Dawson City. Over the years I learned that a union contract is desirable for municipal workers, in particular for workers in a small community, as well as the administrator and council. The distance from the council chamber (not just the mayor’s desk) to the public works, recreation, and administration front lines is short in a small town. It is not unknown for citizens to run for council because they have ideas about how public works, or the office, or recreation, should function.
In the long-term the community is better served in every respect, including financial, when the terms of employment for front-line workers are established in a sound contract, and the employees have an experienced and credible agent to represent their interests. Although their wages can be traced back to taxes (at least in part), municipal workers are employed by the municipal corporation, not by every taxpaying Tom, Dick, and Harriette who believes to have a right to tell municipal workers what to do and how to do it.
A lot depends on the way negotiations are handled by both parties, but a union contract has the capacity to pre-empt disputes and when disputes arise to resolve disputes that, in the absence of a contract, easily and often turn political in small communities.
I understand the most recent nibble of interest in unions was 14 years ago – a significant number if you work your way backwards. There hasn’t been any interest during subsequent administrations.