UPDATED: CUPE To Begin Province-Wide Strike Votes Tuesday

More than 22,000 CUPE New Brunswick workers will begin taking part in province-wide strike votes next week.

It comes after union negotiators were unable to reach an agreement with the government for several locals.

“At 11:30 today, government left the bargaining table, having refused to respond to CUPE’s last pass on Thursday night,” president Stephen Drost said in a news release Friday morning.

CUPE NB issued a 100-day ultimatum in late May, giving the Higgs government until Labour Day to settle collective agreements.

The employees are in different sectors including education, social development, justice and corrections, and transportation and tourism.

Drost said the government was not interested in bargaining unless the union accepted concessions.

“No real movement happened on a general economic increase for workers,” Drost said in the release. “He never moved from his initial offer, as the moves he made were coupled with significant concessions demands instead of talking about a general wage increase.”

Last year, Higgs said he would ask public-sector unions to agree to a one-year wage freeze followed by a one per cent wage in each of the following three years.

Premier responds to negotiations

In a news release Friday afternoon, Premier Blaine Higgs said he was “disappointed” with the CUPE negotiations.

Higgs said the government is now offering a six-year term with annual wage increases of 1.25 per cent in the first four years and two per cent in each of the last two years.

“The government remains committed to working with unions to determine an appropriate level of compensation that is fair to both employees and taxpayers,” Higgs said in the release.

The government said its offer, which would be about $71 million annually, also includes the following:

• Adjusting the rates of pay for casual workers with less than six months of service from 80 per cent of the regular job rate to 100 per cent.
• An additional 2.5 per cent wage increase in exchange for ending the retirement allowance. Employees would not lose their retirement allowance benefit accrued to date.
• Considering additional wage adjustments for specific jobs where there is a significant wage difference compared to competing employers and recruitment and retention difficulties.
• Converting the two pension plans for CUPE members working in school districts to the shared-risk model to make them sustainable and affordable and to increase the security of pension benefits. This conversion would also make part-time employees, such as the more than 2,500 education assistants, eligible to participate in the pension plan, which they are not now.
• Removing about 100 unionized workers with managerial responsibilities from the bargaining units. This would require the appropriate compensation and job security provisions to ensure these positions are adequately protected and not subject to arbitrary actions.
• A proposal to establish joint employer-union working groups across the civil service, school districts and the health-care system to collaboratively identify and implement opportunities to improve workplace safety, effectiveness, productivity and to optimize public access to government services and facilities.

Higgs accused the union of not being flexible with its wage demands of five per cent per year over four years, which the government said would add an additional cost of about $158 million.

“New Brunswick is not immune to the economic challenges brought on by the pandemic,” he said. “New Brunswick has fared well so far but there is still uncertainty with COVID-19 and its variants. We must remain prudent, responsible and realistic about the wage package we offer, and I believe we have been.”

Contingency plans are in place should the union receive a strike mandate and exercise its right to strike, said the government, adding there are workers who are designated as essential in all CUPE units to “ensure the health and safety of the public.”