After nearly two months of strikes, unionized employees of Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) may be on the cusp of resolving their labor dispute with the Crown corporation.
Manitoba General Employees Union (MGEU) announced that its members will vote on a new offer from MPI between noon and 6 pm today, with results to be announced in the evening.
“We have told members all along that if we received an offer that was substantially improved, we would put it out to members for a vote,” MGEU president Kyle Ross said in a statement obtained by the Winnipeg Sun. “After receiving a new offer from the Corporation today, our bargaining committee decided it should be put to a member vote."
The new offer presented by MPI includes a wage increase of 12.2% over four years, with 3% wage hikes for both 2022 and 2023, 2.9% in 2024, and 3.3% in 2025.
Around 60% of members would receive an additional 3.5% wage increase during the contract term due to a new maximum increment step for each pay grade.
Full-time employees would also be entitled to a one-time, lump-sum signing bonus of $1,800, which will be pro-rated for part-time employees.
As members vote on the offer, MGEU said all picket lines across the province will temporarily come down.
News of the offer comes after Manitoba’s NDP government replaced most of the MPI board shortly after it was sworn into office on October 19.
According to Matt Wiebe, Manitoba justice minister and the minister in charge of MPI, the new board will work towards ending the strike that began in late August.
“It's absolutely vital to be perfectly clear with the workers of MPI and with all working people across Manitoba that … as a new government, we're setting a new tone and we're setting, in this case, a new mandate for the board of MPI,” Wiebe had said to the press.
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