Tough love means wage freeze

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/11/2016 (3289 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

No doubt Premier Brian Pallister felt the need to provide a spoonful of sugar to help some strong medicine go down. During the media briefing prior to the throne speech Monday morning, he was upbeat about the province and Manitobans. Mr. Pallister talked about how hard-working Manitobans are and how much he loves this province.

Hang onto your hats though: there are cuts coming and no amount of sweet talk is going to make the bad news any easier to take.

For one, expect legislation that will control public-sector costs. The premier says he’s serious about fixing the finances and that means public- sector costs cannot exceed Manitobans’ ability to pay. That’s likely going to translate to a wage freeze for the public sector, including hospitals and universities.

Before anyone gets too self-righteous, ready to storm the legislature and complain about the neoliberal stance of this Conservative government, recall that the NDP government implemented wage freezes in 2010.

At the time, finance minister Rosann Wowchuk said the province wanted public employees, including its nurses, to take a two-year wage freeze.

“We’re asking everybody to take a pause,” Ms. Wowchuk told the Free Press.

“We are in difficult times and we have to have realistic expectations.”

Fast forward six years and the situation is worse, with a $890-million deficit projected in May’s budget, compared to Ms. Wowchuk’s $600-million deficit from 2010.

The NDP government was able to push forward with its wage freeze back then because it promised the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union there would be no layoffs. In January 2016, the NDP government signed a five-year deal with the MGEU that gave members a wage increase of one, one, two and two per cent over four years, plus a job-security clause that promises anyone hired before April 2015 will not be laid off for the next five years.

Of course, a provincial election followed quickly thereafter.

Talk about tying the hands of the new government. That’s why things are going to get ugly. Because while the MGEU may have its deal in place, others do not.

You only have to look at the protracted strike between the University of Manitoba and its faculty association. Initially, the impasse was in part over a demand for a 6.9 per cent wage increase. When the premier mulled publicly about a potential wage freeze during mediation, there were complaints the government was interfering in the bargaining process. Subsequently, however, the University of Manitoba Faculty Association quickly responded that governance and workload were more important issues, and a zero per cent increase for a year would be acceptable, if those issues were addressed.

The government is serious about getting Manitoba’s fiscal house in order. It was a plank on which the Tories sought election. It is something the throne speech outlined as a priority.

A public-sector wage freeze should not come as a surprise.