MPI workers hit picket lines as union calls on government to return to bargaining table
'We've told them we're open all day, every day, ready to bargain, [but] they won't engage'
Picket lines went up around Manitoba Public Insurance outlets and service centres on Monday morning for what board chair Ward Keith said was the first general strike in the Crown corporation's 52-year history.
About 1,700 unionized MPI workers across the province went on strike at 7:30 a.m. after an agreement on a new contract could not be reached during weekend bargaining with the Crown corporation. Close to 1,200 of those workers are in Winnipeg.
"It's unfortunate that Manitobans, again, have to pay the price for their government's inability to bargain with workers," Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union president Kyle Ross said Monday outside the MPI service centre on Main Street at Anderson Avenue in Winnipeg.
The MPI strike started as Liquor Marts reopened after 1,400 Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries employees accepted a new contract and ended more than a month of job action on Sunday. Those workers are also represented by MGEU.
"These workers don't want to be on strike. We just feel we have no choice when you put these unfair offers on the table," Ross said about the MPI workers.
"Hopefully the employer will come back to the table and we can come to a place where we can settle this. We've told them we're open all day, every day, ready to bargain, [but] they won't engage."
He repeated many of the same lines he used during the Liquor & Lotteries strike, specifically that workers are seeking an offer on par with what Premier Heather Stefanson and other elected provincial officials are getting. Those are raises of 3.3 per cent this year and another 3.6 per cent in 2024 and likely 2025.
On the weekend, MPI said it had offered a four-year deal that included two per cent annual general wage increases over four years, a one per cent market adjustment on wages for about 75 per cent of union members, and a 3.5 per cent wage jump for employees when they reach the top of their pay grades.
The offer also included a one-time $1,800 signing bonus, equating to 2.8 per cent of the average salary, and other monetary enhancements that total 1.7 per cent of the average salary, MPI said.
MPI says the "comprehensive offer" would provide unionized employees with guaranteed 17 per cent increases over four years. It has posted a summary of the offer online.
However, Ross said the union wants an offer that "that doesn't try to split our membership. We want to see a deal that can help them all move forward."
He repeatedly called for the government to return to the negotiating table.
"It's really upon them to pick a day or pick a time and we'll be there. We just need them to show up," he said.
"As soon as we started having discussions with MBLL, we resolved it within two days."
Currently, there are no talks scheduled, Ross said.
"We'll be back tomorrow if they come today with a fair deal. The government's the one pulling the strings behind the scenes."
MPI board chair Keith, though, said it is the union causing the upheaval.
MPI is willing to meet again with MGEU "to work through finalizing the agreement that's been put on the table," Keith said.
The offer contains the same general wage increases that Liquor & Lotteries employees have accepted, he said.
"The major difference is that the MPI offer also includes a direct path to voluntary arbitration, which would allow MGEU to make its case for general wage increases in excess of the two per cent per year already proposed, while guaranteeing the total 17 per cent monetary value of the current offer," he said.
"Despite the overall value of this offer … MGEU has chosen to reject this offer without taking it to members for a vote. Instead the union has decided to engage in a full-scale strike until further notice, in attempts to create unnecessary service disruptions for Manitobans."
He accused the MGEU of making inaccurate and misleading statements to the public, particularly about the offer not being uniformly beneficial.
It includes a permanent new pay step of 3.5 per cent, which would apply to all unionized pay scales, Keith said. All unionized employees would benefit either immediately or over time as they reached the top of their respective pay ranges.
MPI is also offering a one per cent special wage adjustment for unionized employees in the corporation's operations division. This is the only part of the offer that would not apply universally to all unionized employees, but would go to three-quarters of MGEU's members, Keith said.
"MGEU leadership, I'm sure, will continue to spin these numbers to justify their strike action and related service disruptions to MPI customers, but these are the facts," he said.
The corporation will maintain some services, such as licence renewals, insurance policies and payments, and collision damage claims.
Keith said he hopes, in the next 48 hours, to announce contingency plans to resume driver road tests through "other service providers." He did not say if those providers are private companies.
"There will be costs to maintain services to customers, but these are core services, and customers expect those services to continue," he said.
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