St. Amant Inc. (Support) - Local 92 - Bargaining Brief

Updated: Sep 16, 2021
Approx. Number of Members: 730
Current Contract Expires: March 31, 2017
MGEU Staff Negotiator: A. J. Hunter
Elected Bargaining Committee Members: Matthew Swirsky Jacob McConnell

LATEST BARGAINING NEWS

Since the St. Amant (Support) - Local 92 collective agreement expired, a number of factors have prevented negotiations from starting, including the government’s wage freeze legislation, the health care representation votes and, most recently, the global pandemic. Since so much time had passed, the Bargaining Committee gave members another opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas about how to improve the collective agreement. The deadline for submitting proposals was Friday, October 30, 2021. Please stay tuned for a meeting (as public health guidelines allow) where members can vote on the latest proposals. 

Overview of Bargaining So Far

The St. Amant Support Bargaining Committee held meetings to gather ideas and proposals for improving the collective agreement on Wednesday, March 15, 2017.

The Committee then reviewed these proposals and worked to put them together into a package to present to the employer.

As of December 31, 2017, even though HCSS collective agreements had expired and the St. Amant Support - Local 92 Bargaining Committee was ready and eager to get going, negotiations had not begun. Employers were unwilling to schedule bargaining dates.

One issue is that the government said they wanted HCSS workers in each region to be covered by one union and one collective agreement — but they did not tell the unions or the employers exactly how this will happen, or when.

Once the votes were finally over with, members of St. Amant Inc. (Support) - Local 92 had an opportunity to once again put forward their ideas and proposals for improving their collective agreement at meetings held on June 23 and 24, 2019. 

In the mean time, the MGEU began working on the issue of wage freezes.

Last spring, the government announced that they would not consider giving any public service workers any general pay increase for the first two years of their new contract.

This legislation, known as Bill 28 or The Public Services Sustainability Act, is not fair.

So the MGEU formed, along with the other unions, the Partnership to Defend Public Services. In the fall of 2019, this Partnership challenged the government in court because what they’re doing goes against Canadian laws — all workers have the right to negotiate a fair contract, including their wages.

On June 11, 2020, On June 11, a Court of Queen's Bench judge ruled in favour of the unions, agreeing that Bill 28 violated members' rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

On August 17, 2020, the Pallister government announced it would be appealing the judge's decision. The government had until January 2021 to submit supporting documentation for its appeal by the end of January 2021 and the Partnership to Defend Pubic Services (PDPS) (which includes the MGEU and other public-sector unions) then had 30 days to file material in response. The government's appeal is expected to be heard in court this spring.

While this goes forward, dates in November 2021 have also been set by the court for the second part of the Court of Queen’s Bench trial, to determine any additional remedies that go beyond having Bill 28struck down. Meanwhile, the MGEU and the other PDPS partners continue to focus on trying to get back to the bargaining table.   

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