City will ask province to require essential services agreement protecting vital civic services during labour disputes

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This article was published 16/01/2024 (639 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The city appears poised to seek a new method to protect key city services, such as drinking-water treatment, from being disrupted during future labour disputes, which would replace a more controversial alternative.

On Tuesday, council’s executive policy committee opted against a long-debated proposal to request that the province define more of Winnipeg’s municipal government staff as essential workers, which would prevent a minimum number of them from going on strike. Instead, the city will ask the province to require the municipal government and its unions to complete an essential services agreement prior to any strike or lockout that guarantees critical city services can continue.

“It ultimately gets us to the same place. There are services in the City of Winnipeg that are essential and are services that must be delivered. And, in my mind, our citizens need assurance that, no matter what, the delivery of those services are never in doubt, are never in jeopardy,” said Mayor Scott Gillingham.

Tuesday’s decision follows months of debate. EPC was first asked to call on the province to expand the list of city workers deemed essential in March, but laid the matter over repeatedly to allow discussion with union leaders. The original proposal followed a labour dispute in October 2022, when 4,900 unionized city staff came within a few hours of a strike with no agreement to keep critical services in place.

At the time, multiple sources warned the absence of municipal employees would increase the risk of sewage spills, boil-water advisories and delays in answering emergency calls. Water and waste staff, as well as some 911 operators, were included in the potential job action.

Gillingham said he expects an arbitrator would help reach a solution if the city and union can’t come to an agreement. He said he’s confident the new motion would eliminate the risk of critical services being interrupted.

“(This) finally moves us along to say, (since) the province has already said they’re going to be looking at essential services legislation, let’s include the City of Winnipeg.… It moves us to a point of action, which is overdue,” he said.

Coun. Brian Mayes, who raised the new motion Tuesday, said it would allow the city to reach a negotiated solution and address complaints that the initial proposal could interfere with collective bargaining rights.

“I think it should be a negotiated process. It does influence the power of the right to strike or lockout… I thought it was not fair for the employer to simply designate unilaterally, or the government, to designate who they think is essential,” said Mayes.

The provincial government recently noted it is considering potential legislation to ban employers from bringing in temporary replacement workers during strikes and lockouts.

However, the head of the city’s largest union said he fears the call to require an agreement could slow down negotiations already underway to reach one.

“There’s no sense in us going back to the table unless we know what’s going to be happening with the legislation.… (And) we were making a lot of headway. I thought we were going to have something done… in the weeks to come,” said Gord Delbridge, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 500.

CUPE previously vowed to fight changes to declare more occupations essential if it determined they would weaken bargaining rights.

Delbridge stressed the union has always been committed to protecting critical services.

“There was no risk. We would make sure that those services were in place,” he said.

However, the city’s top bureaucrat said the municipal government and CUPE haven’t made progress on the file.

“We have been trying for months, waiting for months and getting no meaningful responses from CUPE to actually advance this discussion. This report has been in front of one committee or another for close to a year… this was our only option to move this thing forward,” said Michael Jack, the city’s chief administrative officer.

Meanwhile, Jack said the potential ban on replacement workers has made it more urgent to ensure essential services continue during any labour action.

“(If a strike happened) our hands would truly be tied.… We wouldn’t have any agreement with CUPE that we could keep truly essential services, like water treatment, operating and we would be prohibited by provincial law from engaging any other contractor or any other body to come in and assist,” he said.

Council is slated to cast the final vote on the matter on Jan. 25.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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