BLOG + PRESS

Government Of New Brunswick Collective Agreement

Posted on April 9, 2021

In southern New Brunswick, the City of Saint John also escalated a labour dispute with CUPE, which uses COVID-19 as justification. As described in a previous story of NB Media Co-op, Saint John is experiencing a budget crisis because the city`s large industry, particularly the Irving Oil refinery and the pulp and paper companies JD Irving, has not generated revenue. The municipal bargaining team demanded that CUPE Local 18, external workers, not take a pay increase. Sandy Harding, regional director of CUPE Maritimes, said it was “disgusting” that the Regional Government of Chaleur would take advantage of the COVID-19 crisis to openly hire schorf to replace cupE employees. “It`s a really shameful situation,” she said. “We turned to the employer and respectfully asked them to stop the lockout in this crisis situation and they quickly refused. We then asked them to negotiate (practically) in order to reach a conscience solution and to give these workers the respect they deserve, and the employer`s representative does not really want to talk, unless the native accepts concessions on sick notes and the language of the Union`s leave. I am outraged by this whole situation, and my heart applies to strong workers who simply defend the language of the collective agreement they already have. On March 19, Saint John Mayor Don Darling wrote on his blog that he would not support increases with union groups, given the COVID 19 situation. Breaking with the tradition that a mayor does not vote on applications and does not speak publicly about things until he sees the documents, he said: “There is a provisional agreement for Local 18 that comes to the city council on Monday night. If there are increases, bonuses or barriers in this agreement – and I expect it – I cannot support it, and I will ask the councillors not to support it. Labour disputes in the north and south of the province – Heat and Saint John – show that some local and regional governments are taking advantage of the COVID 19 crisis to use members of CUPE, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, New Brunswick and Canada`s largest union. CUPE has more than 26,000 members in New Brunswick.

“The Federation of the New Brunswick Labor Party is pleased that paramedics, represented by local CUPE 4848, will likely see a fair wage increase as a result of the recent announcement of their reclassification,” said Daniel Legere, President of the New Brunswick Federation of Labour (NBFL).