Over the years, UNW members have made many important and positive advances for unionized workers. Wages and working conditions have been improved for unionized workers through the strength of collective bargaining. In 1998, the Hay Plan, a gender-neutral wage evaluation system, was included in the collective agreement with the GNWT. GNWT “Donny Days”, which was originally a salary refund by days of leave without pay, were negotiated by the UNW on a few collective agreements to paid days off. In 2002, there was a big gain when a Union-backed human rights complaint about pay equity was finally settled, leading to a government-wide reassessment of the value of many public service jobs and was paid millions of dollars to affected workers. As early as 1967, Yellowknife became the capital of the NWT and the federal government began transferring responsibility to the territorial government. Many of GNWT`s first employees were previously federal government employees and members of the Public Utilities Alliance of Canada. But as GNWT employees, they had no union or collective agreement. In 1968, NWT Commissioner Stu Hodgson passed the NWT Public Service Association Act, which recognized the NWT Public Service Association as a negotiator for 1,000 GNWT employees. The group was certified in 1969 and GNWT`s first collective agreement was signed on June 8, 1970.

After years of disputes that nearly led to a general strike in February, the Northwest Territories government and the union, which represents some 4,000 of its employees, have a new collective agreement. In his report, Ready says it would be an “understatement” to say the negotiations have been “difficult and sometimes controversial.” He says that during the mediation, both sides “worked diligently” to resolve their differences, but that discussions “mostly stalled on some issues of job security, the duration of the agreement and economic increases.” In the event of problems in the workplace, workers would go to the Commissioner`s office individually. .