MGEU tests new Manitoba labour legislation in strike by child and family services agencies
The Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union has applied to the provincial labour board under new provisions of the Labour Relations Act to (LRA) have the current contract dispute with two child and family services (CFS) agencies resolved by an independent arbitrator.
More than 300 members at Michif Child and Family Services and Métis Child, Family and Community Services are now in their second week of a strike, fighting for wage parity with other provincial workers who do similar jobs, MGEU president Kyle Ross says.
"It's alarming to note that neither of these employers has approached the MGEU to get back to the bargaining table with a fair and reasonable offer for these workers," Ross said Thursday at the Union Centre on Broadway in Winnipeg.
That foot dragging is putting families and kids at risk, even moreso as layoffs to 20 per cent of the unionized staff at the agencies take effect Thursday, he says.
MGEU's filing argues those layoffs infringe on the workers' ability to strike in a meaningful way because, in order to maintain a certain level of essential service more workers will now have to leave the picket line to go back to work.
The recent amendments to the LRA mean a union can ask the Manitoba Labour Board to order a dispute be resolved through arbitration if the requirement to perform essential services has compromised the right to strike and the right to collective bargaining.
Most of the striking workers are employed at shelters operated by the CFS agencies, created to prevent Métis children and youth in care from being placed in hotels and to help young adults aging out of care.
As a result, not all of the unionized workers have been on the picket line. About half have been working to maintain an essential level of care required for vulnerable youth, whose quality of life could otherwise be at risk, the MGEU says.
The layoffs have added another concern for workers who are trying put pressure on the employer by striking while also balancing a level of care.
They have now been without a contract since the previous agreements expired on Jan. 31, 2023. Any wage increases bargained into a new contract should be retroactive to that date, but Ross is concerned the employers will argue those payments only apply to members still working when the new deal is ratified.
"Those workers who were laid off today stand to lose two years of retroactive pay," he said.
The Manitoba Métis Federation has said budget constraints led to the layoffs but "the employer hasn't laid bare what their financial situation is," Ross said.
"They have a duty to let us know what their financial situation is so we can understand when they're issuing layoffs and when we're bargaining. But we have yet to hear that from them," he said.
In the meantime, funding from the province to CFS agencies has increased by more than 14 per cent over the past three years, including more than $2 million in new funding in last month's budget, Ross says, "so the money for wage parity is there."
"We believe those layoffs are part of a bargaining strategy. We've been arguing with them for over two years and there was no mention … at any time that there would be layoffs coming. Then, once our members chose to push back and take a strike mandate, they brought down these layoffs."
On March 24, Southeast CFS was able to avert a strike and reach a new collective agreement by offering wage parity, Ross says, adding both the Métis CFCS and the Michif CFS received proportionally similar funding increases.
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