City of Dawson employees will soon find themselves negotiating their first collective agreement after officially unionizing under the Yukon Employees Union, a component under the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC).

On Monday, the Canada Industrial Relations Board issued the certificate granting Dawson staff union status.

"I would like to welcome our new members,” Laurie Butterworth, president of the employees' union, said in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon.

"We look forward to providing representation for these workers.”

The brief statement notes town staff provide valuable services to citizens and businesses in Dawson.

"On behalf of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, I extend my congratulations to the workers of the City of Dawson,” Jean-Francois Des Lauriers, regional vice-president of PSAC North, said in the statement.

"We look forward to working with our new members and forging a positive relationship with the employer.”

Des Lauriers told the Star this morning the 20 or so employees with the municipality began the process of unionizing around April of this year, though they had been looking at it for a while.

There are about two or three employees in addition to the 20 who don't fall under the union because they are in a position to hire or fire town staff, he said.

With the town now governed under a stable mayor and council in power since 2006, after the Yukon government had imposed a trusteeship on Dawson and its financial problems in 2004, the timing was right for workers to start looking at unionizing, Des

Lauriers added.

Employees in Dawson had also recently heard of Watson Lake negotiating its first collective agreement as a union, he pointed out.

The agreement will allow employees to assert their rights as workers and have their benefits and pay set out in a written document, he said.

The exact details of what will be included in the agreement are still unknown.

”It's really hard to say for now,” Des Lauriers said, though he noted it will have the standards set out in the PSAC's agreements: a grievance process, pay scale, vacation, benefits and language which respects employees' rights against harassment.

Des Lauriers didn't have figures on the pay scale of Dawson employees available.

He said that will be something the union will be looking at during negotiations on the first collective agreement for the community's employees.

He expects to file a notice to bargain within the next week. Negotiations will then most likely begin in the new year.

Neither Dawson Mayor Peter Jenkins nor the town's acting CAO returned phone calls on the issue before press time this afternoon.