Quick moves set the long-term tone

Opinion

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This article was published 23/10/2023 (710 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s not really a test as much as it is something of a primer in political pragmatism.

But it’s also something the Wab Kinew government is going to have to figure out quickly, especially considering the government has a bevy of well-meaning and earnest newcomers at the helm.

On Thursday, Kinew took aim at the ongoing strike at MPI, saying, “Right now, I think the situation at Manitoba Public Insurance with the strike is the one that demands the most immediate attention.”

Roughly 1,700 unionized workers at MPI have been on strike since Aug. 28, heading to the picket lines almost exactly as a strike at Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corp. was ending. The strike is slowly but surely building a backlog for auto body shops and car owners who don’t have access to the usual number of insurance adjusters, and other MPI services for drivers, like new Manitobans from other provinces seeking drivers’ licences, have basically ground to a halt.

New governments love to be seen to be fixing things that their predecessors have broken and, early in mandates, there are often instances where quick solutions turn out to be more generous than might otherwise be the case. And more generous than anyone might have expected.

With Kinew’s words, the whole dynamic in the MPI strike shifted Thursday.

It shifted even more on Friday, when Justice Minister Matt Wiebe announced the government had appointed a new chair of the board of directors for MPI, and in fact, an entirely new board of directors.

Not only that, but the government issued a mandate letter to the new chair and board, telling it the government expects MPI to get back to the the bargaining table and settle the strike.

There’s not much to negotiate in this next round of talks.

It will be difficult for MPI negotiators to talk tough — heck, to even stand pat — when their political bosses say it’s time for the strike to end.

The power’s now been put in the union’s hands: instead of management dragging its feet in negotiations to put pressure on union members who are hurting, union negotiators can drag their feet, knowing the employer is being pressured from above to settle.

As a result, you can be absolutely sure the union’s resolve to stand firm on almost all issues just got a little stronger. And the union members’ support for their negotiators just grew as well.

But, all things considered, it might have been better for the government to move with a little more delicacy than simply coming in with both feet and cleaning house at the board level.

A quick MPI deal, post-election, is not just a quick deal for MPI workers: it’s also something that other public sector unions will look at as something of a template. A new baseline will be seen to have been drawn, and if an eagerness by the government to settle means an over-generous deal, other bargaining groups will expect similar treatment.

You can rest assured that any prospective MPI deal will be turned inside out and compared with the earlier deal struck by Heather Stefanson’s Progressive Conservatives and liquor corporation employees to see where and how gains have been made.

The NDP certainly want to make a good labour relations impression early in their mandate — and this certainly looks like they have.

But they only get the chance to make the right decision once.

The expectation trap for the NDP government may be something they themselves are right now in the midst of building.