No end in sight for MPI strike

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This article was published 12/09/2023 (726 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With Manitoba Public Insurance workers heading into week three on the picket lines, a drawn-out labour conflict akin to the recent Liquor & Lotteries Corp. strike could be on the horizon.

Speakers at a morale-boosting rally held by the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union at Memorial Park Tuesday described the toll the strike was taking on workers.

“It’s been tough. We’re into week three of this strike. It’s been hard, it’s hard on our families,” striking MPI worker Tracy Groenewegen told the crowd.

“There’s financial impact, there’s uncertainty. We’ve walked through wind and rain, and wasps, so many wasps.”

Manitoba liquor workers began rotating strike action July 19, and a new deal was ratified five weeks later. Groenewegen, who represents MPI workers on MGEU’s board, said her peers have the opportunity to end the strike with an improved deal “just like Liquor did.”

“I know if we stay strong, stay united and keep up the momentum, we will get MPI back to the table and we will get a fair deal for all of us, not just some of us,” she said to cheers.

MGEU president Kyle Ross said the strike continues because MPI has continued to refuse to bargain on general wage increases.

“We know at (Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries Corp.), once we started talking, it resolved rather quickly,” he said.

“They said the same thing, they refused to meet, refused to talk, and then once they chose to chose to talk, it was a choice on their part, then we resolved the deal in two days, and we took it over to our members and the strike was over.”

MPI board chair Ward Keith said the public insurer has heard Manitobans are experiencing service disruptions as a result of the strike, but said they remain firm on taking any overall wage increases to independent arbitration, rather than through negotiation.

“I can assure you that there is no organization more anxious than MPI to end these service disruptions and have its unionized employees returned to work,” he said. “The problem appears to be with this general wage increase demand of the MGEU, and the MGEU is simply not prepared to discuss this issue further unless MPI is prepared to meet their demands for general wage increases beyond the eight per cent already contained in the offer. And MPI’s position on that has been clear from the outset.”

Contingency plans from MPI continue — knowledge testing for Class 1 drivers licences (which allows drivers to operate semi-trailer trucks along with vehicles from Classes 2, 3, 4 and 5) is set to resume soon. Road tests will likely take more time because of the size of the vehicles involved and the in-depth testing style, Keith said.

Class 1 driving instructors were briefed about the decision Tuesday and a formal announcement from MPI would be coming Wednesday, he said.

“The total time that it takes to perform that test, even by qualified driver examiners, is an hour and a half, so it’s going to take some additional effort to resume those services if this if this service disruption continues,” he said.

Karine Levasseur, a professor in political studies at the University of Manitoba who specializes in public administration,, said the possible civil service strike looming could be at play. MGEU represents 11,000 civil servants and has recommended membership provide a strike mandate.

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Negotiations between the province and Manitoba civil servants represented by MGEU will be put on hold until the election is decided Oct. 3, and the final decision on the strike mandate will be announced Oct. 6.

Levasseur suggested the province could be setting the groundwork to make clear to those workers set to vote on a strike that if they do hit the picket line, it could be a long, gruelling process.

“(Striking) is physically demanding, it is emotionally challenging. There’s a lot of solidarity, but there’s a lot of a lot of concerns that creep into into your mindset. There could be the goal here of trying to show what to expect,” she said.

While the strikes remain an election issue, Levasseur said it’s possible the Tories’ cost-cutting mindset is what’s behind the dragging out of Crown corporation strikes, rather than the labour conflicts being used as campaign pawns.

“I’m not surprised, given the intensity and depths of the problems facing affordability and health care, that this isn’t a bigger (election) issue,” she said. “But it is something that, whichever government is formed on Oct. 3, will have to invest considerable time and effort to rebuild those relationships.”

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.