Winnipeg library security guards to receive living wage in new contract

The City of Winnipeg wants security guards at the Millennium Library to receive a living wage, but last month councillors rejected a motion that would have made a living wage mandatory for all city staff and contractors.

A request for proposals for security services posted on the city's website last week includes a requirement that all security guards "be paid a living wage based on current hourly rates as calculated and posted at Living Wage Canada."

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives calculates the living wage for cities across Canada, using local data to determine the expenses for a family of four with two parents working full-time. The current living wage for Winnipeg is $19.21 an hour. 

"I think it's positive," said Gord Delbridge, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the city's largest union. 

"It's absolutely necessary for the City of Winnipeg to become a living wage employer. It's important to lift people out of poverty. They could lead by example being such a large employer that they are."

City council has repeatedly debated whether to make the living wage the minimum wage for all city employees and contractors. Last month, council narrowly voted down a motion to adopt the living wage by a vote of 7-8. 

"I want to send a message to our staff that we care about this issue and that we care about them," said Daniel McIntyre Coun. Cindy Gilroy, who raised the motion on the living wage.

"I want to send a message to citizens that this is important … when it comes to poverty reduction, and ensure that we are being an employer that cares and values its workers. I believe that it starts with us."

Mayor Scott Gillingham voted with the majority to defeat the motion, saying collective bargaining should determine wages.

A report released last summer estimates paying all staff a living wage would cost the city $3 million more per year. City employees making less than the living wage are concentrated in libraries, community services and 311 call centres.

The city has previously committed to a living wage for city employees, including in its OurWinnipeg 2045 planning document.

The city's sustainable procurement action plan also includes a goal to increase the number of organizations paying a living wage, city spokesperson David Driedger wrote in an email.

"We have included living wage requirements in other similar contracts in previous years," he wrote.

'Just the right thing to do'

Delbridge says a living would help reduce turnover in the city's workforce.

"It would help with recruitment and retention, to get better quality services. And it's just the right thing to do, is to pay people at bare minimum, a wage that they can feed themselves and house themselves," he said.

City council's vote rejecting the living wage motion is the final vote on that motion.

The city also wants 50 per cent of the next batch of security guards at the downtown branch to be Indigenous. 

The city included that requirement in a previous contract signed in 2021, but that contract was terminated in November 2022. 

Driedger says the City of Winnipeg is not extending its current contract with Blackbird Security for security services at Millennium Library beyond the end date of Dec. 31. The contract is to hire nine guards, one site supervisor and up to two guards for the skywalk.