4 hours before strike deadline, tentative deal reached by City of Winnipeg, CUPE

The City of Winnipeg and the union that represents thousands of municipal workers have reached a tentative agreement on Tuesday evening, narrowly avoiding a strike.

CUPE Local 500 says the agreement, which may replace the one that expired in 2021, will be reviewed by the bargaining committee for any inconsistencies with what was agreed on, and then presented to union members in ratification meetings that will be scheduled for the coming weeks. 

The strike deadline was 11:59 p.m. Tuesday night. The union previously said if there was no deal by then, 5,000 members would hit the picket lines.

Just before 8 p.m., the union announced that a tentative agreement was struck.

"We shouldn't have ever been put into a predicament like this and into the last minutes. I hope on a going forward basis that the city kind of learns from this," said CUPE Local 500 president Gord Delbridge in an interview on Tuesday night.

He wouldn't speak about specifics of the agreement before members are informed, but did say the sticking points continued to be wages until the end of negotiations.

"I can say that I always think that our members deserve better.... I do feel we have something we can present to them at least, and it'll be up to them to make the final decision," he said.

The City of Winnipeg confirmed in a statement at 8 p.m. that it's reached a tentative agreement with the union, but won't speak about details of the settlement because it's still subject to a ratification vote by CUPE's membership.

If approved by CUPE's membership, the settlement will be presented to council for its consideration, the city said.

Confusion leading up to deal

The mutual agreement comes after a day of confusion and conflicting comments by the two parties.

After weeks of back and forth at the bargaining table, on Monday night, the Canadian Union of Public Employees issued a news release that said its negotiators had struck a tentative agreement to replace the city contract that expired in 2021.

But on Tuesday morning, the city issued a statement of his own, saying while it was relieved to hear CUPE had paused its strike plans for this Wednesday, "both parties have not reached a tentative agreement at this time."

City chief administrative officer Michael Jack said the city was "seeking clarity from CUPE" regarding its public statement about a deal.

"We acknowledge that this latest development is a confusing one for our employees and for Winnipeggers who rely on our programs and services," Jack said in a statement. "The city remains hopeful that it can reach a settlement with the union without a labour disruption."

By early Tuesday afternoon, CUPE Local 500's bargaining committee responded, saying it was "shocked and disheartened that the CAO would contradict the discussions agreed upon through the conciliation process."

"This has resulted in an incredible amount of undue hardship on our negotiating committee, our members and the public," the union said in a news release at the time. "The city appears to be attempting to stall our efforts to achieve a fair deal for municipal workers."

After Jack's statement that a tentative deal hadn't actually been reached, the union renewed the threat to strike and called on the city's executive policy committee to meet immediately in light of the confusion.

"If the CAO has unilaterally decided that a tentative agreement pending EPC approval has not been achieved through the conciliation process, CUPE 500 will file an unfair labour practice with the Manitoba Labour Board that the city has been bargaining in bad faith," the union said in a Tuesday afternoon statement.

Delbridge said there was a lot at stake in the negotiations, given that it's been more than a century since city workers have taken such labour actions.

"I don't think anyone realized the full extent of the magnitude [of] how many people would have been impacted in the compounding effects that go beyond just our members," he said.