Strike at 15 Wing Moose Jaw enters second week as workers continue picketing

A lockout at 15 Wing Moose Jaw is in its second week, with about 35 Sodexo workers on picket line, calling for bargaining to resume. Wayne Mantyka reports.

Traffic has been moving slowly at the entrance to 15 Wing Moose Jaw as locked-out union members picket and explain their concerns to visitors and military personnel.

Cooks, cleaners and maintenance staff employed by Sodexo, an outside contractor, have been locked out since last Wednesday. The workers, represented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada, say low wages remain one of their biggest concerns.

“We don’t even have a living wage, to be honest. It’s not like $16.21 (per hour) for a lot of the people. It’s just not enough. Even if you’re full-time, they’re still going into town and having to take a second job to make ends meet,” said union member Cheryl Leonardo. “We’ve got families to feed and bills to pay like everybody else.”

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Union leadership says it remains ready to continue bargaining and has raised concerns about wage disparities between contracted workers and federal public service employees doing similar work at other military bases.

“The employees that are on strike right now work for a subcontractor to a contractor who is paid by DND,” said Marianne Hladun, executive vice-president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. “If they were federal public service employees, they would be making a living wage, as happens in all the other bases where it is federal public service workers doing this work.”

In a written statement, Sodexo said it does not comment on labour matters.

The military said it would be inappropriate to comment on a labour dispute between two parties that does not involve 15 Wing Moose Jaw.