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New Brunswick Workers Seek Solution to Crisis in Recruitment and Retention Workers Give Government 100 Days to Negotiate Collective Agreements with Wages Acceptable to ThemselvesAt a press conference held on May 28, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) New Brunswick put the provincial government on notice that it had 100 days to settle collective agreements with many CUPE locals or face job action by the workers. Nearly 30 have now passed. Close to 22,000 of the 28,000 CUPE New Brunswick members are still trying to negotiate labour contracts with wages workers deem acceptable. For 8,580 workers negotiations are deadlocked and more than 13,280 are headed for conciliation in the next two months. The union is giving Premier Blaine Higgs until Labour Day in September to meet the workers' demands to fix recruitment and retention issues and offer wages that workers find acceptable.
To add insult to injury, last year, on December 11, the Higgs government announced that they were going to give all public sector workers a zero increase for the year that they worked through the pandemic. Drost made the point that the provincial government should not make the mistake of thinking that essential workers who went all out to fight COVID-19 for the people of New Brunswick will not unite and defend their rights and dignity through coordinated job actions. Workers' Forum is posting below an interview with Steve Drost conducted a few days before the press conference. (Photo: NB Media Coop)
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"If
the Premier and his cabinet refuse to act in a reasonable and
responsible way, once these 100 days have passed, CUPE members will
have to mount a province-wide coordinated action. The Premier is
forcing job action on the citizens of New Brunswick," said CUPE New
Brunswick President Steve Drost. "This ultimatum, as far as we are
concerned, is the most responsible way to get this government to act,"
Drost added. "By September, most residents will already be vaccinated.
A hundred days is more than generous, considering that most of these
workers have been waiting up to four years to get a contract."