In any workplace that deals with the issues of wage disparities, unions have to be equal partners in those discussions of the evaluations that go on in terms of occupations and how jobs are evaluated. They have to be part of the discussions as well on how we're going to achieve the pay equity and how you get to that process. There certainly have been models used in other provinces and in other workplaces where wages were raised by a certain amount and set aside away from collective bargaining. Sometimes what happens is, if you leave it over there, then some of the same forces that come into play have come into play all along. People think, oh well, if this group is getting a wage increase, then I'm losing out on a wage increase. That's why we've kept them separate in terms of bargaining.
There are going to be people who are active in the workplace and who can talk about the whole education factor and the whole evaluation factor. People have to feel confident their jobs are being evaluated and valued in ways that are different from the evaluation and valuing that has gone on up to this point, because it hasn't been working overall.
Unions are equal partners in these discussions, and that means there will be, from time to time, unions having to go out to explain to their own members why this group is getting a boost and why this group is getting the same wage increase that everybody else got. There are all those pieces. If unions aren't there, then you're going to have a pay equity plan that isn't going to work because people are going to look at it and say, it's employer-driven and it's still not fair because employers haven't done a good job about a fair job evaluation all along.