Court amends injunction against striking City of Yellowknife workers

An injunction against striking City of Yellowknife workers was amended Friday. There is no longer any limit on the number of workers who can be on picket lines in the city.

But it appears to have had no effect on the number of people actually on picket lines. Instead they were largely, if not completely, empty Friday morning for the first time since picketing began on Feb. 8.

A temporary injunction was granted earlier this week after the city brought the action to N.W.T. Supreme Court. The 10-day injunction was granted Tuesday.

It imposed limits on worker action at strike locations including a six-person cap on the number of protesters allowed at some locations, and imposed a 10-minute limit on how long union members could delay traffic from accessing city run facilities or construction locations.

In a statement Friday, Union of Northern Workers president Gayla Thunstrom said, "We are very pleased with this ruling, which reaffirms our members' rights to peaceful and lawful protest."

The emailed statement did not address the absence of picketers in Yellowknife.

Both the city and the union are scheduled to speak to the injunction Tuesday in N.W.T. Supreme Court.