Southeast Child and Family Services workers ratify agreement as Métis, Michif agencies continue strike

Workers with Southeast Child and Family Services have voted in favour of a new collective agreement days after two sister agencies hit the picket line calling for better wages.

Members of Southeast CFS Local 395 have ratified a new collective agreement that bumps wages up to parity with other staff doing the same work in the civil service, the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union said in a release Friday.

That's four days after about 390 workers with the Métis and Michif child and family services agencies began a strike, demanding wage parity. The union says under the most recent offer, annual wages for those workers would fall from $3,800 to $5,300 behind civil service workers by the end of the proposed contract. They've been without a contract since Jan. 31, 2023.

The last contract for Southeast Child and Family Services, which provides services to eight First Nations in southeastern Manitoba, expired on March 31, 2022.

About 170 workers with the agency had voted in December in favour of a strike, but a tentative agreement was reached Monday, before job action began.

MGEU president Kyle Ross said in the union's release that reaching the deal was a "long process," but it will make a "real difference" for workers.

The new four-year contract includes wage increases in each year of the agreement, a retention step at the top of each salary schedule, and new shift and weekend premiums, as well as an increase to bereavement and family responsibility leave and wellness days, the release said.

The union will continue fighting for a deal for Métis and Michif CFS workers, who also deserve wage parity, Ross said.

About half of workers with the two agencies are required to continue working under the essential services agreement.