Firefighter union joins Manitoba Federation of Labour

The union that represents Winnipeg firefighters has voted to join the Manitoba Federation of Labour in hopes of reducing high call volumes and worker burnout.

United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg president Nick Kasper said crews respond every day to emergencies that are rooted in “deeper social issues.”

“Through this affiliation, it enables us to work alongside other labour groups to advocate for the well-being of all communities and all workers,” Kasper said Monday.

The firefighters union and labour lobby group have joined forces in the past and now the arrangement is permanent.

The arrangement will help the union lobby the provincial government and work with the province’s biggest unions. The federation represents more than 130,000 unionized workers across the province.

Response times continue to be slow and fire rates continue to be high in Winnipeg, Kasper said. He hopes to work with the federation for more prevention and education on issues facing firefighters.

Kasper’s first order of business is to call for amendments to the Workers Compensation Act to better support firefighters who develop cancer and other diseases as a consequence of the job, as well as address the root causes of high call volumes.

Fire crews battled four fires across Winnipeg on Friday, which Kasper said is an unsustainable number.

Five people have died in city house fires since Jan. 1.

A report submitted to the city in January showed emergency personnel made 576 visits to encampments for fire-safety purposes in 2025 and responded to 543 fires involving homeless people.

Data from the union released last year shows the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service responded to more calls per capita than any other jurisdiction in Canada.

WFPS responded to, on average, 169 calls for service per 1,000 people in 2024. Vancouver’s call volume was the second-highest at 108 calls per 1,000 people and Calgary was third with 56 calls for service per 1,000 people.

“This has just somehow become normalized in Winnipeg, and we’re an extreme outlier across the country, and we shouldn’t be accepting it as normal anymore,” Kasper said.

The union will join the executive council of the Manitoba Federation of Labour and be able to send members to sit on different committees and participate in federation events and conferences.

The federation is now one union closer to representing every labour group in the province, said president Kevin Rebeck. Only a handful of unions in Manitoba are not part of the group.

“It just shows that the labour movement is alive and well,” he said. “We continue to have very strong relationships with the ones who aren’t with us and continue to speak with one good voice for labour.”

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca