MPI buried under hail-damage claims as Crown corporation’s workers set to walk By: Tyler Searle Posted: 7:23 PM CDT Friday, Aug. 25, 2023

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This article was published 25/08/2023 (1132 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

About 1,700 unionized employees at Manitoba Public Insurance are preparing to walk off the job next week, leaving the Crown corporation scrambling to address a tsunami of vehicle claims after wild weather battered parts of Winnipeg Thursday evening.

The Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union notified MPI Friday that its members will take strike action beginning Monday at 7:30 a.m.

“I wouldn’t say we were surprised, although, I was disappointed,” MPI board chair Ward Keith told the Free Press. “It’s very concerning… because MPI knows it needs to be there when customers need us most, and after a hail storm like last night, customers need us.”

Thursday’s brief but violent storm tore through north Winnipeg neighbourhoods from West Kildonan to Transcona. High winds and hail downed trees, smashed windows and left hundreds of vehicles needing repairs.

By end of business Friday MPI had received more than 1,000 hail-damage claims, and more are expected.

“It wasn’t just yesterday. This was a bad year for hail claims overall,” Keith said, adding the current year-to-date total is well beyond the four-year average of approximately 4,000 hail-damage claims.

“This goes back to why MPI was working so hard to find an alternative to strike action when it became clear we’d come to an impasse on the issue of general wage increases.”

MPI has offered union members an annual wage increase of two per cent per year for four years. The deal includes additional wage incentives and adjustments for specific employees, and a one time signing bonus. All in, it represents a total a monetary value of 17 per cent, Keith said.

In addition, MPI offered to immediately move to voluntary arbitration on general wage increases beyond the two per cent already proposed, in a bid to avert a strike.

The union rejected the offer, arguing only half of its membership would benefit.

MGEU president Kyle Ross accused the corporation of “trying to fool our members with misleading and disingenuous claims about their wage offer.”

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“Our members are facing difficult inflation, and (MPI’s) offer doesn’t help with that. They’re trying to characterize it as 17 per cent with all these other benefits, but you can’t eat those benefits. People need to be able to afford their mortgages… that has to be in wages,” he said.

“We’ve indicated we’ll bargain right up until the deadline at midnight on Sunday, and if we can avert this, that’s our goal.”

In a separate interview, Keith fired back.

“The MGEU, I understand, is trying to question the monetary value. But at the end of the day, it is real dollars in that offer that would flow (to workers),” he said. “So I’m really not sure what Mr. Ross is thinking.”

If no agreement is reached before Monday, a raft of MPI services will be affected, including its call centres, claim processing, damage estimates and driver and vehicle licensing.

The union said it will establish picket lines outside MPI locations in Winnipeg, The Pas, Thompson, Dauphin, Brandon, Portage La Prairie, Winkler, Arborg, Beausejour, Selkirk, and Steinbach.

Meanwhile, residents in Winnipeg are assessing the damage wrought by the storm.

Robert Shuster was among a small group of motorists who visited MPI’s service centre at 40 Lexington Park in East Kildonan.

The hood, trunk and passenger side of his maroon, 2017 Chevrolet Malibu were pockmarked with dents after being blasted by hail in Transcona.

“It was horrendous,” he said of the storm. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that… I’m sure there’s going to be an enormous number of claims.”

Shuster learned of the looming strike Friday morning, and went to the centre hoping to file a claim. He was turned away and directed to report the damage via telephone.

He was not concerned about potential delays brought on by the strike because the damage to his vehicle is cosmetic, he said.

Amber Lahti reported her claim from home, after similarly being turned away from MPI’s location at 1981 Plessis Rd.

“I am lucky in that I still have my vehicle and I can drive it. It’s just not very pretty.”–Amber Lahti

Her cell phone’s call history recorded 70 call attempts to MPI before she connected with someone. She was able to file a claim, but is awaiting a callback with an appointment time to have the damage assessed, she said.

Like Shuster, she said the damage to her vehicle is inconvenient but not incapacitating, and she is not concerned about her claim being delayed.

“I am lucky in that I still have my vehicle and I can drive it. It’s just not very pretty,” she said.

At Vickar Ford’s 2000 Main Street location, 230 vehicles were damaged, with estimated repair costs ranging from $100 to $7,000 per vehicle, said vice-president Domenic Sacco

Some of the claims will need to be handled by MPI while others will be covered by business insurance.

The dealership is now planning a hail sale, with “significant discounts” on some damaged vehicles, Sacco said.

“It’s about making lemonade when life gives you lemons,” he said.

“We were already tremendously busy with all the hail this year, and last night’s storm just kicked it to another level. I believe this is probably almost two years worth of work.”–Tyler DeBow

Tyler DeBow, owner of Miracle Dent Repair in Transcona, described a chaotic day fielding phone calls from concerned customers wondering how and when they could get their hail-damaged vehicles repaired.

“We were already tremendously busy with all the hail this year, and last night’s storm just kicked it to another level,” he said. “I believe this is probably almost two years worth of work.”

DeBow expressed uncertainty over how the strike might impact small businesses such as his that rely on MPI adjusters to issue estimates before repairs are done.

He encouraged customers to file claims when they can and to remain patient.

MPI issued a statement Friday advising that during a strike, the contact centre will remain open for reporting personal injury claims, non-driveable collision claims and total-theft claims.

Customers with damaged vehicles will be referred directly to MPI-accredited repair shops for vehicle estimates and repairs.

Driver testing, estimating and adjusting appointments scheduled for Monday will be cancelled and affected customers contacted to reschedule.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.