MPI workers’ union slams Stefanson’s ‘double standard’; driving instructor fears for replacement examiners’ safety

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This article was published 29/08/2023 (739 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As Manitoba Public Insurance prepares to restore some services currently on hold, the union representing 1,700 employees who walked off the job Monday took aim at raises given to the corporation’s bosses and brokers.

“MPI will announce its plan to resume most driver testing services (Wednesday) and customers with existing knowledge test or road test appointments will be contacted directly to reschedule those services,” a statement from the public insurer issued Tuesday afternoon reads.

MPI board chair Ward Keith told reporters Monday he had “no apologies” for the Crown corporation’s plan to use alternative service providers to cross the picket line and fulfil roles normally handled by striking workers, including driver’s licence testing.

Some services, such as MPI’s contact centre, are being staffed by the 300 MPI workers who are not members of the Manitoba Government and and General Employees’ Union.

MGEU president Kyle Ross said he wasn’t convinced MPI’s contingency plans could fully replace the work its members do.

“I think it’d be very challenging for them to put any type of proper system in place,” Ross said Tuesday.

MGEU compared the wage increases received by workers and those of MPI executives, Autopac brokers and members of the legislature.

While MGEU members’ wages were frozen between 2020 and 2022, the union said MPI’s chief executive officer received an eight per cent pay increase; a vice-president who serves in the role of chief financial officer received a six per cent increase in that same time period.

MGEU also pointed out that businesses that partner with MPI receive higher pay increases than what striking workers want — MPI’s compensation for repair shops increased 6.7 per cent, and MPI brokers received 3.75 per cent in commissions per year from April 2021 to March 2023.

A Free Press investigation in May 2023 found that MPI’s then-CEO Eric Herbelin’s salary went from $348,094 in 2021 to $375,563 in 2022, an eight per cent increase. MPI announced Herbelin was no longer employed with the corporation later that month.

The union is seeking the same pay increases Premier Heather Stefanson, cabinet ministers and all other MLAs are receiving — 3.3 per cent in 2023, and 3.6 per cent in 2024 and 2025. MPI has offered two per cent annual wage increases for four years, and several benefits including a signing bonus and a one per cent market adjustment for some employees.

As was the case in the Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries workers’ strike that ended Sunday, the provincial government is involved in negotiations between the union and MPI, Ross said.

“Clearly the premier is happy to say yes to higher-paying pieces for herself and cabinet, and she’s equally happy to say yes to senior executives at MPI, to private brokers and to private repair shops,” he said. “But why is she so focused on saying no to front-line MPI workers? Why the double standard?”

On Monday, Stefanson posted a short video to X (formerly Twitter) that accused MGEU of playing politics and suggested that “sometimes the answer just has to be ‘no’” to the demands of striking workers.

It’s time to stop playing the NDP’s politics and get back to serving Manitobans.#manitoba #mbpoli pic.twitter.com/vuk5llY3il

— PC Party of Manitoba (@PC_Manitoba) August 28, 2023

Meantime, some driving instructors are concerned that rushing into a new testing system could have safety consequences.

While Lek Kinnarath, the owner of Maple Leaf Driving School, has been teaching students to drive for more than 35 years, he said he plans to turn down the offer to conduct MPI road tests, if asked.

“Honestly, if they were to ask me to become an examiner for the next five days, or 10 days, I wouldn’t do it,” he said Tuesday.

Kinnarath, like most driving instructors in Winnipeg, teaches students using a vehicle equipped with a second brake pedal in the passenger compartment. It’s a feature that keeps the driver, instructor and the public safe. He said taking on drivers looking to get their licence using their personal vehicles without that safety feature requires extensive training and is potentially dangerous.

“We have seen in the past that many, many of the students were not ready to go for a test,” he said. “When they come in their own cars, it’s dangerous for us.”

He said MPI has reached out to driving-school instructors in the past to work as examiners, but he’s never accepted the invitation. He said he hopes anyone taking on the role during the strike gets knows what they’re doing.

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“If (MPI) were to hire or employ new instructors who had just been in business for, let’s say, a year or two, then I would say that person may not be suitable to become an examiner,” he said.

Kinnarath said he supports MPI workers — examiners, in particular — who, in his view, deserve to be paid more for what they do.

“Their job is very dangerous. Many times I’ve talked to those examiners, I said, ‘You must have got nerves of steel,’” he said.

“Even me, I’ve been teaching for many years, and even in a training car we have to keep our eyes open.… I’ve heard that many examiners have gotten into accidents because they have no control in a private car.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Malak Abas
Reporter

Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.

Every piece of reporting Malak 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.