It's not just the turkey feathers that are ruffled this weekend. City of Moose Jaw Union members have given CUPE Local 9 a strike mandate.

CUPE Local 9 President Stacey Landin says the city wants a lot of concessions out of the union.

"They're not looking to add anything to our benefit plans. They're also trying to cut people out of our bargaining union. They won't even discuss monetary issues. They want us to accept the concessionary measures before they give us a monetary offer."

City Manager Matt Noble is responding to the news release sent out this morning by the union, saying he was a little surprised to hear about a strike vote so early in the process.

"the last time there was a bargaining issue, they met for 26 sessions and took 9 months longer than it has now. To suggest that at this point we are at an impasse seams kind of strange."

The union represents more than 200 union members and President Stacey Landin says the city won't even talk monetary issues right now. She explains the city want's them to make concessions before moving on, one of them being mandatory standby for non-emergency calls.

"People on a voluntary basis for certain positions, would be willing to be on standby. That means that they'd be responding in 30 minutes to do certain type of work and the proposal from management was to make that mandatory in many cases."

Landin says they've applied for a conciliator in the talks because the union feels they are at an impasse.

City Manager Matt Noble was surprised to hear about the strike vote this morning, saying it's perfectly normal to talk about wording in a bargaining agreement before talking about money.

"We're looking at our collective agreement as it stands against others in the province and trying to make sure that it is understood on both sides that we're trying to provide a service to our citizens."

But Noble notes, they have already been talking about benefits with the union and those are considered monetary in nature.

Noble supports the application for a conciliator, saying if the union believes it will lead to an agreement sooner, he's all for it.