WINNIPEG – A nine-week strike at Manitoba Public Insurance is coming to an end.
Workers at the provincial Crown corporation, which provides auto insurance and other auto services, have voted to accept the latest contract offer and plan to return to work Friday.
About 1,700 unionised workers walked off the job on 29 August in a dispute over wages.
The new contract includes wage increases of 13 per cent over four years, a signing bonus and other benefits.
Kyle Ross, president of the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union, says the deal will help his members cope with the rising cost of living.
The Crown corporation’s management plans to begin restoring services and clearing a backlog of driver tests, claims assessments and other programmes on Friday.
“We are incredibly excited to have our entire team back at work on Friday and are equally eager to begin the process of rescheduling appointments that were cancelled, suspended or limited during the work stoppage,” MPI chief executive officer Carmen Nedohin said in a press release Wednesday night.
The strike began under the previous Progressive Conservative government. After the New Democrats won the October 3 election, they replaced all but one of MPI’s board members and called for negotiations to resume with a better offer.
Union members rejected a first offer under the new government on Monday, and union and management negotiators reached the new agreement on Tuesday night.
Justice Minister Matt Wiebe, who is responsible for MPI, said the wage increases will not affect the NDP’s plan to return the province to balanced budgets within four years. Manitoba has run deficits in all but two years since 2009.
“We want to make sure we remain open to workers … and make sure they’re compensated fairly, but ultimately we have a mandate to balance the budget in the first term and we’re committed to that,” Wiebe said.
Wiebe could not say whether the higher wages would be paid for by higher premiums for drivers or by reduced profits at MPI. He referred questions to MPI management.
MPI made a net profit of $4 million in the 2022-23 fiscal year. It lost $58 million the previous year.
