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“If we all stand united, we could have a maximum impact,” he said. “We did all this to get everyone’s attention that we deserve better.”

But Chris MacDonald, Unifor’s assistant to the national president, said better wasn’t in the offing on Thursday. Talks that afternoon revealed the Crown employers were still stuck on two years of flat wages, he said. Unifor has come back with a counteroffer, though he would not say what it involves.

Photo by TROY FLEECE / Regina Leader-Post

The Crowns had previously offered two zeros followed by a one-per-cent hike in year three, with another two-per-cent increase to follow at some tables. Sources on the union side familiar with negotiations suggested the new offer adds another year with a two-per-cent raise.

The government could neither confirm or deny those accounts, though it acknowledged the Crowns had made a new offer. MacDonald and others have been adamant that Unifor members are unwilling to accept any deal with zeros. He called that a “big problem.”

Dias argued that Premier Scott Moe and his ministers are “calling the shots” and leaving little wiggle room for the Crowns to meet employee demands. MacDonald said the timing of the latest offers prove it.

“How is the government not involved if, in one day, all seven Crown corporations miraculously have an offer for us?” asked MacDonald, who called the government a “puppet master.”

Dias accused the government of “sheer hypocrisy” for offering workers less than the 2.3-per-cent, cost-of-living increase MLAs granted themselves this year.