City, union cross announcements

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This article was published 11/10/2022 (805 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Winnipeg is sharing some details of an odd dispute that briefly left many residents to wonder whether a major civic strike had been averted or not.

On Monday night, CUPE Local 500 announced it had reached a preliminary agreement to prevent a strike among its 4,900 city workers. However, the city issued a news release Tuesday morning that stated negotiations were ongoing and a tentative agreement had not been reached.

On Tuesday night, both sides said a tentative deal was in place, which now awaits union member and city council votes.

Michael Jack, Winnipeg chief administrative officer, said CUPE’s release came before municipal negotiators could secure a mandate from council’s executive policy committee to approve a revised deal.

“A package was suggested by CUPE that was beyond what we had authority or mandate to agree to. Our bargaining team had suggested a process by which we might get feedback on that proposal. We were waiting to hear feedback from CUPE and then, to our surprise, we saw (a) public notice suggesting a tentative agreement had been reached,” Jack said Wednesday.

CUPE Local 500 said the same deal is now moving forward.

Local 500 president Gord Delbridge said he’s still convinced the union interpretation of events was right, stating a conciliator involved in the labour talks confirmed the tentative deal Monday.

He’s disappointed with how the city handled the matter. “I don’t know why (the Tuesday release happened). I was shocked and taken aback by that,” he said.

The union is considering filing a complaint over the city’s claims, to determine if it constitutes “an unfair labour practice.”

A labour relations professor said the whole incident is “very, very odd,” which makes him suspect some “dysfunction” on the management side.

“This makes me wonder about what is going on between the city’s bargaining team and the people they report to,” said David Camfield, an associate professor of labour studies and sociology at the University of Manitoba.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga