CUPE waiting for ratification to decide whether to continue lawsuit against province
Emergency hearing scheduled for Monday cancelled in light of tentative contract agreement
CUPE had asked for an emergency hearing Monday to put a pause on the emergency order while its legality was decided.
But because staff went back to work after negotiators reached a tentative agreement over the weekend, the emergency hearing was adjourned.
Union lawyer Joël Michaud said that while the emergency hearing is cancelled, the legal challenge is still on.
"It's certainly on, at least until ratification," he said. "If the hospital-sector's members don't ratify, then we're right back to square one."
On Sunday, CUPE and the province separately announced a temporary end to the two-week strike by 22,000 public-sector employees, including school bus drivers, educational support staff and workers in transportation, corrections and the community college system.
The employees will vote on a tentative agreement with the government this week and decide Friday if the strike is over or if they will go back on the picket lines.
Health-care workers out for a shorter time
Some support staff in the health-care sector were part of the strike for a week but were ordered back to work by the province on Nov. 7.
Attorney General Ted Flemming imposed an emergency order that said if any of them continued to strike, they could face thousands of dollars in fines. And the "employee organization" they're a member of would be fined a minimum of $100,000, with no maximum limit, for each day they don't comply.
In its challenge, CUPE alleged the order contravened the workers' right to freedom of association and to belong to a certain organization. They also alleged the fines exceeded what's allowed through the Emergency Measures Act, and constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment," which also contravenes the Charter or Rights.
Michaud said that even if the agreement is accepted, the union may continue the challenge to get clarity on whether using the province's Emergency Measures Act to stop a strike is legal in general.
"There may be, you know, long-term utility in having a decision for all parties involved, frankly, for government as well," Michaud said. "There could be … a pretty clear statement of the court as to whether or not acting this way was legal.
Or the union could abandon the challenge, Michaud said. The union has yet to decide what to do.
Even if CUPE wants to go ahead, Michaud said, the court could decide that the issue is moot if the order is permanently lifted.
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Subject: RE: Too Too Funny Methinks your boss Higgy and CUPE deservve
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Schools to reopen Monday after province, CUPE reach tentative agreement
Schools moved to online learning on Nov. 1 after province locked out striking education workers
"I know that the last couple of weeks have been challenging for students and parents," Premier Blaine Higgs said in a press conference Sunday. "There's no replacement for in-classroom learning."
More than 22,000 public sector workers are now expected to return to work after being on strike for more than two weeks.
Tentative agreements were reached Saturday night with seven of the union's locals, Higgs said.
Schools closed on Nov. 1 and moved to online learning after about 3,000 workers that included custodians, bus drivers, school library assistants and administrative support went on strike.
Community colleges, where CUPE workers are also employed, are expected to reopen to students on Tuesday.
"I'm optimistic," Higgs added. "I really believe people want to get back to work."
Higgs declined to comment on contract terms.
CUPE New Brunswick president Steve Drost said negotiations over the past few days have been painful and tedious, but he's excited to present it to workers after everything they went through.
"Both sides were able to make compromises in the best interest of the province," he said.
The new wage offer will allow workers to keep up with cost of living in the province, he said. The 10 locals involved in strike action will be voting this week, with votes expected to wrap up by Friday.
Steve
Drost, the president of CUPE New Brunswick, at a press conference last
weekend. He described the negotiations as 'painful and tedious.' (CBC)
"I think that we've been able to achieve labour peace for New Brunswick. I'm very confident that we've made some historic gains here for workers," Drost said. "I couldn't be prouder of the workers."
Both parties have also reached an agreement regarding pension plans that were being offered to locals 2745 and 1253, Drost said.
Previously the premier had been demanding the locals convert their pension plans into the shared-risk system already in place for most other provincial employees, a major sticking point in the labour dispute.
"We were able to achieve language in terms of a memorandum of understanding on that, whereby it's not necessarily a conversion to shared risk," Drost said.
A union led court challenge regarding the back to work order that forced more than 2,000 health-care workers back to work on Nov. 6 scheduled for Monday is still going ahead, he said. The premier has since confirmed the order has been revoked.
"We have to ensure that people's rights weren't violated," Drost said.
N.B. Liquor stores staying open
A tentative agreement between the province and the local representing workers with N.B. Liquor was also reached Saturday evening, its president said.
The workers previously were set to take strike action by Tuesday if a deal couldn't be reached over the weekend, which would have shuttered stores.
Jamie
Agnew, the president of Local 963, at a press conference last Tuesday,
said the negotiating team is 'very happy' to have reached a tentative
agreement for N.B Liquor workers. (Ed Hunter/CBC)
"The negotiating team is very happy. We're glad to have this done," said Jamie Agnew, the president of Local 963.
He wants the public to know there's no need to panic buy. Provincewide sales reached $2 million on the Wednesday before Remembrance Day, he said, well over projections of around $500,000.
A prior tentative agreement had been reached between the union and management a year ago.
"We thought we had a tentative agreement in November of 2020, but that was squashed by Mr. Higgs, so we had to go through this process again, and ended up taking a strike vote," Agnew said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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News Release
Tentative agreements reached with CUPE
13 November 2021FREDERICTON (GNB) – The provincial government has reached tentative collective agreements with the seven local bargaining units represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in Parts I, II and III of the public service.
These seven bargaining units include approximately 20,000 workers in the education, health and public service sectors, including road maintenance and parks workers, correctional officers, social workers, court stenographers, laundry workers, school custodians and bus drivers, education assistants, patient care attendants and food and environmental service workers in hospitals, to name a few.
All strikes and lockouts end immediately. Employees will return to work as soon as operationally feasible.
Details about the reopening of schools are being finalized and will be announced Sunday.
The parties have agreed not to share details of the agreements publicly pending ratification.
13-11-21Media Contact(s)
Erika Jutras, communications, Department of Finance and Treasury Board, erika.jutras@gnb.ca.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXkpmYpX5iE&ab_channel=CBCNews
Higgs: We were shocked CUPE N.B. leaders didn't accept our offer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFmt02NmxuM&ab_channel=cpac
New Brunswick issues back-to-work order for striking health-care workers – November 5, 2021
https://nbmediacoop.org/2021/11/11/nb-debrief-special-on-the-cupe-strike-video/
NB debrief special on the CUPE strike [video]
![NB debrief special on the CUPE strike [video]](https://nbmediacoop.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Steve-Drost-NB-debrief-screenshot.jpg)
NB debrief host Tobin Haley is joined by CUPE NB President Steve Drost and the regional director of CUPE Maritimes Sandy Harding for a conversation on the strike action by nearly 20,000 CUPE members in New Brunswick. Filmed on November 10, 2021.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RpTj_CZ44o&ab_channel=CHCO-TV
The NB debrief is a collaboration between the NB Media Co-op and CHCO TV. We want to hear your thoughts. Email us at nbdebrief@chco.tv if you have suggestions for topics that we should cover, guests that we should interview or if you have skills that you think we could use.
Dozens join CUPE strikers in Sackville to show solidarity and support
Students, faculty and staff from Mount Allison University joined residents from Sackville on Friday, November 12 at Main and York Streets to support CUPE public-sector workers on the fifteenth day of their strike.
“I thought it was important for as many people in the community as possible to come out and show their support for the striking CUPE workers,” said Politics and International Relations Professor David Thomas who organized today’s rally.
“We want to show them that we’re behind them 100 per cent,” he added.
“We applaud them in fact, for their very difficult and courageous stance in terms of standing up to the Higgs government here and fighting for a fair contract.”
Thomas said it’s clear from polling and general observation that the CUPE workers have strong public support partly because there are 22,000 of them and all have friends and family.
“In a small place like New Brunswick, almost everyone is somehow involved,” Thomas said.
“Many other things over the past several months have led to a credibility crisis for the Higgs government, whether it’s the handling of COVID or it’s the refusal to talk about unceded territory and on and on and on, his popularity rating has been declining so much, I think there’s a general lack of trust in the Higgs government,” he added.
Anti-worker bias
Hannah Wickham, a religious studies student at Mount Allison University, said it’s important for people at the university to support the CUPE workers.
“I think it’s probably one of the most obvious instances where the employer so deliberately is being under-handed and back-handed towards workers that it’s impossible for anybody to look at the situation and not come away feeling just total support for the workers,” she added.
John Dale, a recent Mount Allison graduate, said he also feels the Higgs government is biased against workers.
He said last year’s faculty strike showed that Sackville has a strong, union-organizing culture, and so it’s important to support CUPE strikers who are friends and neighbours.
“We live in an under-developed region, so I think a lot of the concerns of the folks in this union are quite valid indeed,” he said. “Wage increases, for example, have not matched that of inflation, so there’s a lot of reasons for folks to be unhappy.”
Re-open the schools
“It’s so much more difficult to learn and to teach and just understand things,” she said. “It’s really hard on everybody.”
Theodor Michaelis-Law said he supports CUPE workers at his high school because their work is so important.
As he spoke, several passing drivers on Main Street blew their horns.
“The people on strike are Sackville citizens and I think Sackville citizens have a lot of solidarity with each other, Sackville’s a pretty close-knit community,” he said.
“When someone in Sackville is in need of support, then other citizens will support them and if that’s honking horns, then yes.”
His father Stephen Law, who is a professor of economics at Mt. A., said that Sackville is a strong union town.
He pointed to the three unions on campus, town employees who belong to a CUPE local and unionized CN workers.
“If you start going through all the locations, schools, hospitals, the university, there’s a lot of union support in Sackville,” Law said.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/new-brusnwick-strike-cupe-back-to-work-order-1.6242264
CUPE takes province to court over back-to-work emergency order
CUPE alleges the mandatory order forcing staff back to work is unconstitutional
In a filing for a judicial review Monday, CUPE alleges the emergency order is unconstitutional. CUPE is asking a judge to quash the emergency order, which they allege contravenes the workers' right to freedom of association or to belong to a certain organization.
Last week, Public Safety Minister Ted Flemming said cabinet was using the Emergency Measures Act to issue an order forcing the health-care workers to go back to their jobs. The order says if a person fails to comply with it, the "employee organization" they're a member of would be fined a minimum of $100,000, with no maximum limit, for each day they don't comply.
CUPE application says the fines exceed what's allowed through the Emergency Measures Act, and constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment", which also contravenes the charter.
Health authority CEOs said order was necessary
The CEOs of the two health authorities said the system had reached a breaking point with not enough custodians and workers to keep the trash cans empty and the bed sheets clean.
Several COVID-19 testing and vaccination centres were also closed because of lack of staff, according to the province.
One local has about 70 per cent of its workers designated essential and therefore not on strike, but the province and health authorities said that number was still not enough to keep the system functioning and people safe.
Over the weekend, the affected custodians, patient services workers and laundry workers were back on the job while their union challenged the order with the New Brunswick Labour and Employment Board.
The board dismissed the complaint, saying there wasn't enough evidence to prove the province broke the law by forcing workers off the picket lines.
The next day, CUPE filed the lawsuit.
The province has not filed a statement of defence and no date has been set to hear the case.
'We will defend it fully in court'
Premier Blaine Higgs said Monday the province is prepared to spend as much money as it needs to in order to "keep the health and safety of our citizens first and foremost."
"It's just unfortunate that it would continue to challenge us in court when we have an emergency measures act in place, when we have a pandemic on the fourth wave and we have situations in our hospitals that need to be addressed," he said in a news conference Monday. "We were cancelling, you know, elective surgeries and starting to get to a point where we could go beyond that.
"It's kind of hard to imagine that the CUPE leadership would take a position that they are, but I assure you, we will defend it fully in the courts."
The remaining locals not involved in the back-to-work order remain on strike, including certain school staff and transportation workers.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/higgs-cupe-health-care-workers-1.6243082
Higgs says CUPE health-care workers could continue strike with Public Health go-ahead
Higgs says workers could go back on strike if they wish once Sept. 24 state of emergency ends
Higgs made the comments to reporters after the Opposition Liberals questioned whether he plans to keep the emergency order in place in perpetuity, even after COVID-19 hospitalizations fall below the threshold for lifting restrictions.
"If the CEOs [of the two regional health authorities] and Public Health were to say, 'Okay, we're good to go,' then we'd be in a situation where we could say, 'Okay, we don't need to maintain this regulation about back to work," he told reporters.
"Workers could go back on strike if they chose to do so. I would like to think that during this time frame that they will have a chance to vote on the offer that's on the table, and all of this would be unnecessary."
Use of emergency powers
Last Friday the province used the same emergency powers to order striking hospital workers back on the job. Most of them are members of the 9,000-strong Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 1252.
The province declared a new COVID-19 state of emergency on Sept. 24 under the provincial Emergency Measures Act and issued a new mandatory order on masks and other measures.
At the time they said that order would be lifted when fewer than 10 New Brunswickers were hospitalized for COVID-19.
Hospitalizations peaked at 68 on Oct. 13 and have been trending downward since then. On Tuesday there were 16.
That trend prompted the Liberal Opposition to ask Tuesday what will happen to the order applying to health workers if that number dips below 10.
"Premier, are you going to have a state of emergency forever, as long as you're premier?" Liberal Leader Roger Melanson asked during question period.
Justice and Public Safety Minister Ted Flemming pointed out that the back-to-work order is separate from the COVID-19 restrictions order.
But Higgs acknowledged to reporters that it is linked to the pandemic.
"It is a separate document, but it is allowable because of the province being under an emergency order, so the two are tied in that sense, because it is health and safety."
At first he refused to answer questions about what will happen when hospitalizations dip below 10, calling them hypothetical.
He then said he wouldn't necessarily keep the back-to-work order in place.
"I'm not saying that would be the case at all. We would decide at that point at time based on the Public Health assessment and the CEOs' assessment about what would be the next step."
Thousands
of striking and locked-out public sector workers and supporters gather
at the Legislature in Fredericton on Nov. 2, days before striking
health-care workers were ordered back to work. (Jacques Poitras/CBC News)
He pointed out that it was the health authority CEOs who asked for the order last week based on hospitals reaching the breaking point.
He said any decision to lift the order would be based on the same consideration, not the state of the labour dispute.
Green Party Leader David Coon, who called the use of the emergency order "autocratic" last week, said he was not reassured by Higgs's comments.
"I guess I don't buy it. I don't see that happening. I think that's just politics."
Green
Party Leader David Coon said on Twitter the Higgs government's use of
the Emergency Measures Act powers to order public sector workers back to
work is "unacceptable" and "circumvents the democratic process of the
Legislature." (Ed Hunter/CBC)
Current status on negotiations
The order signed last Friday applies only to health-care workers. About 70 per cent of CUPE Local 1252 members had been designated essential and were still working despite the strike.
School staff, jail guards, court stenographers and other CUPE members on strike were not affected by the order and continue to walk picket lines.
Higgs continued to insist Tuesday that CUPE leaders put what he called a new offer to members for a vote, though union officials argue that's not possible unless they and the province reach a tentative agreement.
The premier has claimed there was a deal last Thursday night that union leaders would take to workers. CUPE denies that, saying it responded to the government's proposal with a counter-proposal in the wee hours of Friday morning.
The two sides were not far apart on wages but Higgs is insisting that two CUPE locals agree to look at a new pension system.
The province has the power to declare a "final offer" and ask the New Brunswick Labour and Employment board to order union members to vote on the proposal.
"We are looking at that, because it is an option," Higgs said Tuesday.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/cupe-labour-board-complaint-1.6241039
Labour board dismisses CUPE complaint after some workers ordered back to work
Union representing health-care workers who were forced back to job alleges intimidation by government
On Friday, Public Safety Minister Ted Flemming said cabinet was using the Emergency Measures Act to issue an order forcing more than 3,000 striking health-care workers to go back to their jobs.
Over the weekend, the affected custodians, patient services workers and laundry workers went back to work while their union challenged the order with the New Brunswick Labour and Employment Board.
According to board ruling filed Sunday, CUPE alleged the province was trying to "compel, by intimidation or threat," employees who are not designated essential to stop striking.
In its response, the province first said the labour board lacked the jurisdiction to consider the mandatory order. The province also said the order is lawful and denied CUPE's allegations.
The order does not note the reasons why the complaint was dismissed, except to say the chair was not satisfied that the province violated the Public Service Labour Relations Act.
The full written reasons are typically completed weeks after the decision itself is made.
On Saturday, CUPE president Steve Drost said the union's lawyers are looking into how they could challenge it.
"It's simply a tool that was used to interfere with these members' legal rights," Drost said of the back-to-work order.
Higgs ready to defend use of emergency act
Asked how the province would respond if CUPE went to court over use of the emergency act, Premier Blaine Higgs said the province would continue to defend the "health and safety of our citizens."
"It's just unfortunate that CUPE would continue to challenge us in court when we have an Emergency Measures Act in place, when we have a pandemic [in] the fourth wave," Higgs told reporters Monday.
"We have situations in our hospitals that need to be addressed and we were cancelling elective surgeries and starting to get to a point where we could go beyond that.
He said he found CUPE's position hard to understand, but if the union continues to challenge the back-to-work order, "we will defend it fully in the courts."
Offer, counteroffer, pension impasse
On Thursday night, the province made CUPE officials an offer that's closer to what the union has been asking for when it comes to wage increases.
The offer includes a two per cent increase over five years, plus a 25 cent increase per hour over the same number of years.
The province's offer also includes a memorandum of agreement, where to move forward, both sides would have to agree to allow pension representatives to find a "new retirement vehicle" for two locals.
Higgs said Monday that the government proposal of wage increases totalling 15 per cent over five years reflected the good work of employees.
"This offer reflects what people have done throughout the pandemic," said Higgs.
The two locals, one representing school support staff such as bus drivers, and the other representing educational and clerical assistants, are the only ones remaining with no shared-risk pension plan.
READ: The province's new emergency order forcing health-care workers back to work
(PDF 389 KBKB)
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The transition to shared-risk pension plans has been contentious. In 2016, CUPE joined a lawsuit against the "unilateral conversion" of the province's public service pension plan into a shared-risk plan.
A shared-risk plan means an employee's retirement payout could increase or decrease depending on how their pension plan is performing.
"The rights of CUPE members and many other public-sector workers were violated when the government unilaterally imposed pension changes on workers, in violation of their right to free collective bargaining," Daniel Légère, then-president of CUPE New Brunswick, said in 2016.
Drost posted a video on Sunday explaining the counteroffer CUPE submitted in response. In it, he outlined wage increases that are almost identical to the ones the province was offering. However, the retirement-plan point in the province's offer would be "major concession" by the union.
Back-to-work emergency order and impact on strike, health care
The health-care workers were ordered back to work Friday after a full week of striking.
In one group, Local 1252 representing support staff and maintenance workers in hospitals, 70 per cent were designated essential and were still working.
However, the CEOs of the province's two health authorities said the system is close to a breaking point, and the remaining 30 per cent were needed urgently.
Over the week of the strike, COVID-19 testing and contact-tracing capacity was significantly reduced, with multiple vaccination clinics cancelled.
If workers don't report to work once ordered, the province could fine them between $480 and $20,400 for each day they don't comply, according to the new emergency order.
On Monday, a few days after the emergency order was enacted, Higgs said he's been impressed with the returning employees' work ethic.
"I've been so impressed with the people that have come back to work and have done so and integrated right back into the workforce as we thought or hoped they would, because they are our friends and neighbours."
That doesn't mean they're content, according to the union. Chris Curran, the president of Local 1251 representing laundry workers, said earlier that members were frustrated and angry with the use of the emergency order.
"Members feel like they've been cheated of their right to strike."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Vanessa Balintec
Premier Blaine Higgs chat with Blogger about debate with Striking C.U.P.E. at the Legislature!!!
Premier Blaine Higgs is met by C.U.P.E. Protesters and Pain in the Ass Blogger at Legislature!!!
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/cupe-province-strike-week-two-1.6246897
CUPE, province head back to the table as strike enters third week
Two sides are meeting Thursday and Friday
Premier Blaine Higgs said he met with leaders of the Canadian Union of Public Employees on Thursday afternoon and would talk to them again Friday afternoon.
"We're working on some language together in the agreement that I'm hopeful will get resolved later today," he told reporters. "It remains to be seen. It's not confirmed yet, but I am hopeful we'll find a resolution."
He said the discussions were centred on pensions for two of the CUPE locals, the major sticking point in the dispute.
Higgs said if discussions go well he'd like to see schools reopen Monday.
But CUPE New Brunswick Stephen Drost was less optimistic of a breakthrough.
"The premier's still being extremely inflexible," he said as a large crowd of striking union members gathered again at the legislature. "We're always optimistic, we would like to see this settled, but we're not banking on it."
New Brunswick CUPE president Stephen Drost says Premier Blaine Higgs is still being 'inflexible.' (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
Drost said Higgs is still insisting that the wage offer he has made to all 20,000 workers in the dispute is only available if the two locals move on the pension issue.
"He's insistent that the whole wage package for the whole group … is only on the table if these two convert their pensions," Drost said.
"If they're not prepared to sign those over, the deal for the rest of the groups is off the table."
Even so, those two locals were considering Higgs's proposed language, Drost said.
"They're having a look at it, and if there's a way they can build in some protections for their pension, they may consider it, but there's been nothing agreed to at this time.
"That must be the movement he's referring to."
Premier Blaine Higgs says he's hoping students will be back to learning in school Monday. (Ed Hunter/CBC)
Several hundred CUPE members circled the legislature Friday morning, including a large number who jammed into a small parking lot near the back entrance that MLAs use to enter and exit the building.
There have been daily protests by workers since Nov. 2, when the session resumed, but Friday's was the largest since that date.
At one point dozens of CUPE members blocked an RCMP officer from Higgs's security detail from driving a van out of the parking lot. The protest petered out after that.
Thursday's discussions were the first in a week. The premier said he's hoping the meetings will produce something that can be put to a vote by members.
Higgs had been demanding that two of the CUPE locals convert their pension plans into the shared-risk system already in place for most other provincial employees.
On Nov. 4 he asked the union to agree to have actuaries from both sides work out a new retirement mechanism that met certain criteria.
He said Friday that the new talks are about adding more detail to that proposal to address the concerns of the two locals.
"The nuance is really identifying the criteria in that process that everyone is satisfied with … so they don't have that anxiety.
"I get it, and I'm trying to find ways to put that in words, as are the CUPE leaders, so that we don't make a decision based on the unknown."
Drost also cricitized the government for picking and choosing which CUPE negotiations hinge on the two locals accepting pension changes.
Members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees on
Mountain Road in Moncton as a strike action began two weeks ago. (Shane
Magee/CBC)
The province is negotiating separately with a CUPE local that represents N.B. Liquor workers and is not making those talks conditional on pension changes elsewhere.
"He's prepared to settle that but not take care of the children's future and their education?" Drost said.
Higgs also revealed Friday that the province's projected deficit for 2021-22 has changed again because the government is now factoring in the cost of a potential settlement of the dispute.
On Nov. 3, Higgs said an upcoming second-quarter fiscal update would project a surplus of $200 million to $300 million.
But Friday he said the projection is now $90 million because of the money required to cover retroactive back pay to CUPE members once a deal is reached.
Opposition Liberal Leader Roger Melanson said the evolving figure is a sign Higgs is governing on the fly.
"Changing the number without knowing there's a deal is concerning," he said. "Is there a deal or not? I guess we'll find out soon."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGP0Dex6z_Y
President of CUPE New Brunswick Steve Drost chat with Blogger during the C.U.P.E. Protest at Leg!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYoA1OlIIps&ab_channel=CharlesLeblanc
President of CUPE New Brunswick Steve Drost continues chat with Pain in the Ass Blogger!!!!!
Conflict between CUPE, Blaine Higgs and Fredericton Police is reflected by Blogger 24 hours later!
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/media-blackout-cupe-strike-new-brunswick-1.6248088
Province, CUPE set to discuss new offer
Announcement follows talks between union, government that began Thursday
The Canadian Union of Public Employees says the provincial government will offer a new contract Saturday to seven of the 10 locals currently on strike.
"Today the negotiation process is continuing," the union's bargaining team said in a short statement. "Employer representatives will be meeting and presenting an offer to each of the CUPE locals in Parts 1, 2, and 3."
They include locals 1190, 1251, 1252, 1253, 1418, 1840 and 2745.
Thousands of public servants, including school bus drivers, educational support staff and workers in transportation, corrections and the community college system, have been on strike for more than two weeks.
Talks resumed on Thursday.
CUPE spokesperson Simon Ouellette said discussions with the province went until around 1 a.m. Saturday.
While he couldn't elaborate, he did say that since the announcement that's he's feeling much "more optimistic than yesterday."
The discussions between both parties have centred on pensions for two of the CUPE locals. Locals 1253 and 2745 represent about 3,000 school custodians, maintenance workers, bus drivers, school library assistants and administrative support, as well as educational assistants.
"Government made its final offer and is requesting it be presented to the membership for a vote," Erika Jutras, a spokesperson for the Finance and Treasury Board, said in a release Saturday.
"It is government's sincere hope that workers will be back on the job Monday and schools will be open early next week."
Local representing N.B. Liquor employees still bargaining
Talks also continue between CUPE Local 963, which represents workers at N.B. Liquor.
President Jamie Agnew said there will be talks Saturday afternoon.
Employees could strike as soon as Tuesday if there is no agreement.
With files from Jacques Poitras and Mrinali Anchan
https://nbmediacoop.org/2021/11/08/back-to-work-the-black-hole-of-labour-relations/
Back to work: The black hole of labour relations
Back to work laws are the black hole of labour relations, a place where labour disputes are sent to disappear. In earlier times, troops and militia were regularly called out to send striking workers back to their jobs. The more modern solution, in Canada at least, is to pass laws and issue emergency orders, backed up by enormous fines.
You could see the trouble coming months away. In May the Canadian Union of Public Employees warned that the next 100 days were a make or break period for settling outstanding contracts for 22,000 members in ten locals, many of them working under agreements that had expired years ago. With little progress to show, in September union members voted 94 per cent in favour of strike action.
The province took its time to negotiate. In late October, a mediator did manage to bring the two sides close to an agreement, but the province left the table. Within days the strike was underway. And it seemed increasingly likely that back to work legislation was the province’s endgame.
By Friday morning, November 5, the strike was a week old, and New Brunswickers welcomed the news that the premier and the union president had held a meeting. Once again it sounded like a deal was in the works. The province had made an offer, and the bargaining committee made a counteroffer.
That Friday morning CUPE president Stephen Drost and the bargaining committee sat at a table in front of the New Brunswick Legislature and read out the two versions of the agreement for the benefit of the hundreds of strikers on hand as well as the media. An agreement on wages seemed closer than ever, a matter of 25 cents on the hourly rates in years four and five of the contracts, according to CUPE.
The press conference was only a few minutes old when Premier Blaine Higgs appeared on the scene and requested the microphone. While strikers chanted “Sign the Deal”, he stood on the steps and argued, literally over the heads of the union officers, that any agreement also needed to include a review of pensions for workers in two of the locals.
Somehow it was no surprise that the deal failed.
By late afternoon, the province had issued a back to work order under the authority of the province’s Emergency Measures Act, which had been proclaimed to address conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike a general back to work order, this one did not require debate or legislation.
The order was addressed only to employees in the health care system, where 70 per cent of the staff had remained at work as designated essential workers. The province’s health authority CEOs argued that the health care system, operating under sub-optimal conditions, was now facing intolerable shortages and cancellations. A solution was needed, and the province obviously preferred an emergency order instead of a settlement.
Workers across Canada will be interested to see what a pandemic-style back to work order looks like. But millions of workers are already familiar with the usual back to work laws, which have been used at least 145 times by provincial and federal governments since the first occasion in 1950. Political economists have come to refer to such laws as the new normal, a policy of “permanent exceptionalism” that governments fall back on whenever strikes threaten their political and economic priorities.
The record includes two instances in New Brunswick. The first was in 1982, when non-teaching school board employees were sent back to work after three weeks on strike, under threat of fines of $500 a day for individuals and $10,000 for the union. The issues were sent to arbitration by the province’s chief justice, who endorsed the province’s bargaining position and imposed a new contract.
The measure was used again in 2001 against hospital workers. This time the legislature was called back for an emergency session while striking workers were voting on a tentative agreement. The bill allowed the government itself to write a new contract, including changes in classifications and regulations that the union had rejected. In this situation, members narrowly approved an unsatisfactory agreement, protesting that they were being forced to do so to avoid a worse result.
The use of back to work legislation has become more problematic, at least constitutionally, since a 2015 Supreme Court decision ruled that the right to strike is protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and, like union membership and the right to collective bargaining, is an essential part of the democratic way of life in Canada.
It is worth quoting briefly from the decision:
Where good faith negotiations break down, the ability to engage in the collective withdrawal of services is a necessary component of the process through which workers can continue to participate meaningfully in the pursuit of their collective workplace goals. . . . Through a strike, workers come together to participate directly in the process of determining their wages, working conditions and the rules that will govern their working lives. The ability to strike thereby allows workers, through collective action, to refuse to work under imposed terms and conditions. This collective action at the moment of impasse is an affirmation of the dignity and autonomy of employees in their working lives.
Gaining access to rights, however, is not so simple. Since 2015, governments have continued to use back to work legislation to impose settlements, including by the Liberal federal government in 2018 and again as recently as this past May in the case of port workers in Montreal. As a result, workers face the paradox that rights that are spelled out in standing laws and constitutional decisions continue to be suspended when governments find that serves their needs.
Unless an agreement is reached in the ongoing strike, New Brunswick workers may be the next to face these contradictions in the existing labour relations system. They have already had a preview in the emergency order Friday and may face more back to work legislation in the near future. It seems of course passing strange that the differences on wages have been largely resolved, and that the whole situation hangs on a review of pensions.
There is also the bizarre idea that some kind of mandatory order may be applied to the rest of the province’s public employees. On the face of it, it would seem impossible to impose a back to work law on workers who are not on strike and may not even have taken a strike vote. Possibly what is mooted is an attempt to suspend the right to strike or to impose wage controls. Those kinds of pre-emptive orders would fall dangerously close to violating the requirement to “bargain in good faith” provided in provincial legislation, not to mention relevant Supreme Court decisions.
Meanwhile, the union members, and the general public that consists of their friends and neighbours, are living with the inevitable inconvenience that comes when the public goods and services we depend on are interrupted. They must be wondering why it is so important for the province to take us all down this black hole.
David Frank is a labour historian and the author of Provincial Solidarities: A History of the New Brunswick Federation of Labour.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/cupe-workers-job-vote-proposal-1.6248088
New Brunswick CUPE members to return to work as they vote on tentative agreement
Announcement follows talks between union, government that began Thursday
The Canadian Union of Public Employees says roughly 20,000 workers in New Brunswick will be back on the job as the union presents a tentative agreement with the government to their members for a vote.
The union made the announcement around 8:30 p.m. Saturday, saying "members will return to work as soon as possible."
"There will be no pickets tomorrow [Sunday]," reads the statement on CUPE New Brunswick's website and Facebook page.
This comes after the latest round of negotiations, which went into the wee hours of Saturday morning.
Thousands of public servants, including school bus drivers, educational support staff and workers in transportation, corrections and the community college system, have been on strike for more than two weeks.
Some support staff in the health-care sector were on strike but were mandated back to work by the province after one week.
In its statement Saturday evening, CUPE said that locals 2745 and 1253 arrived at a proposed memorandum of agreement regarding pension plans — something that had been a major point of contention.
CUPE representatives and the province also arrived at a proposed wage package that will be voted on by members in seven CUPE locals. CUPE said the government agreed to make the package available to three other locals, which include employees with community colleges and WorkSafeNB.
The union also said they are in the process of finalizing a tentative agreement for N.B. Liquor employees. Without an agreement, they will be in legal strike position on Tuesday.
The New Brunswick government issued a statement Saturday night as well.
It said details about the reopening of schools are being finalized and will be announced Sunday. The province moved all schools to at-home learning and locked out some workers in the education sector after the strike began.
The government said both parties have agreed not to share details of the agreements publicly until they are ratified.
With files from Jacques Poitras and Mrinali Anchan
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