MGEU tests new Manitoba labour legislation in strike by child and family services agencies

Labour legislation passed last fall in Manitoba is about to be tested by one of the province's largest unions.

The Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union has applied to the provincial labour board under new provisions of the Labour Relations Act to have the current contract dispute with two child and family services 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 more so 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 labour act 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 two CFS agencies 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."

Union misrepresenting facts: MMF

In a statement sent later Thursday, the Manitoba Métis Federation said it has provided specific financial information to the union, including on the inability of the two CFS agencies to match the pay rates between the province and its employees without running a significant deficit.

"We have been very transparent," said Mona Buors, the federation's minister for child and family services, in the statement.

She accused the union of "active misrepresentation of the facts in the public eye," which she called "deeply disturbing."

The MMF said preventing further layoffs, or reversing existing ones, "remains highly dependent on changes to funding" from the federal or provincial governments. 

"If the union can bring Manitoba to the table … we are happy to participate," Buors said. 

But Ross said 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, "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," he said. 

"Then, once our members chose to push back and take a strike mandate, they brought down these layoffs."

The MMF's statement said that even with the provincial funding increase, its available funding is based "on both agencies having significantly less employees than they currently do." 

"In the end, our hands are tied," Buors said, but the federation has "every interest in providing equal wages and benefits to our staff."

On March 24, another agency — Southeast Child and Family Services — was able to avert a strike and reach a new collective agreement by offering wage parity, Ross said.

Both the Métis and the Michif agencies received proportionally similar funding increases, he said.