NDP falters in 1st attempt to resolve MPI strike, but new government deserves latitude, experts say
Manitoba Public Insurance workers' union likely testing how far it can push government: labour studies prof
While NDP Leader Wab Kinew was campaigning for Manitoba's highest office, he made resolving labour disputes sound like an easy task.
In August, he said then premier Heather Stefanson could avert a potential Manitoba Public Insurance strike "by offering a fair wage to these workers right now."
Two months later, his new government has found settling that strike with the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union a challenge — but a labour expert and an economist say the NDP deserves more time to try.
As part of its efforts to resolve the strike that began Aug. 28, the NDP government turfed nearly all of MPI's board. It ordered the new appointees to the Crown corporation's board to avoid binding arbitration and return to the bargaining table to negotiate an end to the dispute.
But in a vote on Monday, those 1,700 striking workers with the public insurer rejected the corporation's latest offer, which included higher wage increases.
MGEU president Kyle Ross said he's disappointed the strike is dragging into a ninth week.
"When you have the now-premier walking your picket lines and telling workers he has their back, members … have expectations they're coming to the table with a real good offer, and we haven't seen that," Ross told CBC Manitoba's Information Radio on Tuesday.
A labour studies expert, however, said the rejected offer shouldn't be an indictment of a government that considers itself labour-friendly.
"At this stage, I don't think that there should be too much disappointment," said Adam King, an assistant professor of labour studies at the University of Manitoba.
"Historically, there is an alliance, of course, between the NDP and the labour movement, and so of course unions are expecting … a fairer approach from the new NDP government," he said.
"But this is a new government that just took office. There is a period of adjustment here."
King said he anticipated the corporation's first offer with a new government in charge would be fairly similar to the last proposal under the former Progressive Conservative government, which MPI described at the time as its "final offer."
The offer rejected Monday would have provided wage increases of 12.2 per cent over four years, with three per cent increases in 2022 and 2023, 2.9 per cent in 2024, and 2.8 per cent in 2025.
It includes a 0.5 per cent "retention adjustment memorandum of agreement," which the union says adds up to a general wage increase of 3.3 per cent in the final year of the proposed deal.
The contract would have also stipulated a one-time lump-sum signing bonus of $1,800 per full-time employee (pro-rated for part-time employees).
King suggested MGEU is trying to see how far it can push the NDP after rejecting its latest offer.
"From the union's perspective, there may be somewhat of a testing period here with the new government to see what's possible … to see if there's room for wage improvements," King said.
Rejected offer no 'impasse'
Fletcher Baragar, an economics professor at the University of Manitoba, also said the new government should be given some latitude.
"I would not see this as an impasse or a derailment at all, but I would say the first step of basically a new round of bargaining."
The new government has signalled a "sea change" regarding its approach to treating unionized public employees, but it will take time to come to fruition, he said.
Even still, Baragar noted the government will have to consider Manitoba's entire fiscal situation. It has promised to balance the province's books within four years.
"I think they don't want to catch themselves in what I would call setting a standard that would prove especially difficult to replicate as other [labour] groups come up to renew their contract."
Earlier this month, 11,000-plus civil servants gave MGEU a strike mandate. The union said it's counting on the new government to present an offer that averts any walkout.
Progressive Conservative MLA Doyle Piwniuk said the NDP should be realizing governance is more difficult than it made it out to be.
"They were going to settle that [strike] as soon as they got into power, but it seems like they're way over their heads."
Piwniuk, recently named as the PCs' shadow minister for Manitoba Public Insurance, said he believes the financial terms in the latest offer are fair. He worries a more expensive contract would hurt the Crown corporation's bottom line and lead to higher insurance rates for drivers.
Matt Wiebe, the NDP minister responsible for MPI, said in a prepared statement the government is committed to keeping dialogue open and ending the strike as soon as possible.
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With files from Cameron MacLean