MMF ‘disappointed’ motion to review wage decision dismissed

The Manitoba Métis Federation says it is “disappointed” a judge has dismissed an application to review a wage agreement because it “cannot afford” to pay CFS workers that rate.

Workers with Métis Child, Family and Community Services and Michif Child and Family Services previously won wage parity through binding arbitration. The MMF asked the court to overturn the “unreasonable” decision.

A Court of King’s Bench judge dismissed that application Tuesday.

The MMF said in a news release Wednesday it fully agrees with the wage increases but “cannot afford to meet the demands of the arbitration due (to) the chronic underfunding of its system by Manitoba.”

A total of 330 workers represented by the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union went on strike in late March but ended the picket two weeks later after an arbitration hearing was scheduled.

The agencies have left 26 jobs vacant to prevent layoffs amid the wage increases, the release said. The measures will only allow the agencies to continue operating at current services levels until the next fiscal year in April, the MMF said.

“Nobody wins in this situation, but some of the parties get to walk away without being held accountable, with our children in care and their families ultimately bearing the heaviest cost,” MMF president David Chartrand said in the release.

After hearing about the MMF’s comments, MGEU president Kyle Ross said the workers have one of the most difficult public-sector jobs and deserve to be paid the same as their counterparts.

“That’s what they were expecting and fought for, and now they are getting more worries, more constraints put on them, when the job is hard enough already,” he said.

In an emailed statement, Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine said the NDP government is increasing CFS funding, while the former Progressive Conservative government “froze wages for years.”

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca