Union recommending latest MPI offer

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This article was published 31/10/2023 (707 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Public Insurance workers who returned to the picket lines on Halloween will have another contract offer to consider as news broke late Tuesday of a tentative settlement to end the strike entering its 10th week.

The deal includes a 13 per cent wage increase over four years, the Manitoba Government Employees Union said in a press release. Dating back to 2022, workers would receive a pay bump of three per cent in each of 2022 and 2023, a 3.4 per cent increase in 2024 and a 3.6 per cent increase in 2025.

It also includes a signing bonus of $1,800 for full-time workers, pro-rated for part-time workers. As well, more than 60 per cent of members would receive an additional 3.5 per cent increase based on a new maximum increment step for each pay grade.

Workers would also receive two weeks “recognition pay” to acknowledge the more than three weeks of the strike where no bargaining could take place “through no fault of their own” as the government transitioned into NDP hands.

“We are pleased that our bargaining committee and MPI were able to reach an agreement that will help all members catch up and keep up with the rising cost of living,” MGEU president Kyle Ross said in a statement.

“This is an agreement we are proud to recommend to our members.”

MGEU will hold an online information session this morning and then members will vote on the offer between noon and 6 p.m. Results of that vote will be announced this evening.

Earlier Tuesday, picket lines formed outside the Manitoba Legislative Building, with signs asking, “Wab — I thought you had our backs?”

MPI workers had rejected the previous contract offer Monday and returned to the picket lines at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Union members have been on strike since Aug. 28.

Premier Wab Kinew told striking workers, “I’ve got your back” at a news conference the day after the NDP won the Oct. 3 provincial election.

The government replaced MPI’s chairman and most of its board on Oct. 20.

In his Oct. 19 mandate letter to Justice Minister Matt Wiebe, who is responsible for the Crown corporation, Kinew instructed him to resolve the labour dispute with “a quick and fair resolution.”

After most of MPI’s 1,700 employees rejected Monday’s offer Wiebe, who was not available for an interview Tuesday, issued a statement:

“Workers are frustrated after being kept out on the picket line for weeks by the former government. A membership vote is part of the process. We’re committed to keeping the dialogue open and ending this strike as soon as we can.”

After being outdoors for more than an hour in a biting wind Tuesday morning, a few of the 900 MGEU members walking the line surrounding the legislative grounds stopped briefly when asked about the strike, now dragging into its 10th week.

“It sucks,” responded one woman, whose colleague said they’re not allowed to speak to the media and both kept moving.

Earlier on the picket line, an unknown man physically assaulted three of the MPI employees, an MGEU spokesperson said. One of the striking workers, a 41-year-old man, received minor injuries and required medical attention, the Winnipeg Police Service said.

A 29-year-old man, who was held by workers until police arrived, faces an assault charge, police said.

The union and MPI went back to the table Tuesday afternoon.

Manitoba’s rate of inflation increased 3.3 per cent in 2021, 7.8 per cent in 2022 and was up 3.2 per cent in August — a 14.3 per cent increase over the past three years.

The offer MPI workers rejected included retroactive wage increases of 12.2 per cent over four years: three per cent in each of 2022 and 2023, with a 2.9 per cent increase in 2024 and 3.3 per cent in 2025. It included a one-time signing bonus of $1,800 per full-time employee that would be pro-rated for part-time workers. That offer received only lukewarm acceptance by union leadership, who put the offer to members for a vote.

The offer looked good enough for the union to put it to its members for a vote but was less than they expected, said University of Winnipeg political studies professor Malcolm Bird.

“Clearly, the workers have been on a long strike, and I think this has probably been extremely hard on them and they obviously were looking for more than what they were offered,” said Bird, who studies Crown corporations.

“I believe the concern about this contract is the precedent that it will set.”

Negotiations are on deck with another 11,000 provincial civil servants who’ve also voted in favour of strike action, he noted.

“This NDP government is in a real bind. It did want to differentiate itself from the previous (Progressive) Conservative government by being more aligned with the public sector and the public-sector unions, but, of course, there is this fiscal reality that is very significant,” he said.

“You’ve got all these wants and you’ve got limited resources and it’s the government and it’s Treasury Board that’s allocating those. These are the hard decisions government has to make.”

Prior to the tentative settlement, University of Manitoba labour studies assistant Prof. Julia Smith and Bird weren’t expecting either side to choose binding arbitration.

“I think both sides know and understand the best place for a deal to get done — for workers, customers, government and the employer — is at the table,” Smith said. “Otherwise you’re just kicking the can down the road. No one gets what they want in binding arbitration.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca