The fate of eight employees who looked after maintenance of the Ship Hector is in the hands of negotiators.
Kim Cail, national representative for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said the union and town are in talks to determine if there are jobs available with the town if the Hector Heritage Quay is purchased by a not-for-profit group.
“We are at the table right now,” she said, adding CUPE Local 281 will be negotiating a new contract in the near future with these eight employees and public works department. “We are looking for a commitment in our negotiations that the town is going to protect these jobs.”
She said a few of these seasonal employees who performed maintenance and repair work involved with the upkeep of the Ship Hector have been called back to work “now and then” by the town for odd jobs, but they’ve had nothing steady since the town announced this spring it wouldn’t be opening the quay due to lack of funding.
Cail said the eight employees currently fall under the town’s recreation department but there may be room to negotiate their move to public works.
The union representative said the union was waiting to see if the sale of the Ship Hector site to the not-for-profit group, the Hector Quay Society, was going through before it began negotiations.
The sale was expected to close the end of August, but the society asked for more time after an environment assessment of the site showed some contamination. A new sale date has been set for the end of September after the society speaks with the Department of Environment to find out the best way to meet its regulations in regard to dealing with the contamination.
“A delay in the proposed transfer to a non-profit society which has been prompted by an environmental assessment gives town council an opportunity to revisit its decision to disassociate itself with this icon of Nova Scotia,” said Cail. "In addition, if the proposed sale of the Ship Hector and Heritage Quay to private interests for the sum of nine dollars goes through, good paying jobs in the Town of Pictou may be lost.”
Nova Scotia CUPE president Danny Cavanagh said impact of losing these unionized jobs is huge.
A very important piece of the puzzle is being forgotten here,” he said. “These are seasonal jobs in a town where a lot of residents already go elsewhere to find employment.”
