Late last year, the Pallister government started slowly backing-away from their promise to protect frontline services and the people who deliver them.

First the Premier called it a “moving target” and he soon followed that up by closing a QuickCare Clinic. Through the media, he put us all on notice that deep 1990s-style cuts were coming.

The government has insisted that there’s a financial emergency that they must address immediately. We all want to see the provincial budget balanced but that can’t come at the expense of jobs and the services families count on.

Manitoba’s Finance Minister invited labour to participate in a process to find new ways to balance the budget. Your union and the Manitoba Federation of Labour have approached this process with an open-mind and a constructive approach. But increasingly, it appears that the Pallister government isn’t all that interested in taking a balanced approach.

Premier Pallister seems to only be focused on cuts. And it appears he intends to use his majority of MLAs elected to the legislature to get his way.

To be clear, the Premier has not yet specifically said what steps he plans to take. But in a recent letter from a senior government staff person to the Manitoba Federation of Labour, the government said that they are considering:

  • Reducing work weeks – Filmon Fridays, all over again.
  • Reopening already signed collective agreements.
  • Making changes to pensions.
  • Imposing predetermined wage settlements – after the Premier gave himself a 20% raise.

In Manitoba, we know what hard bargaining means, but we always come to the table and find solutions, together. That’s why over the last five years, we’ve had only four work stoppages in the public sector – two of those were on the new government’s watch.

We will do everything in our power to get Brian Pallister and his government to the bargaining table, because bargaining works. You can count on your union – and unions across the province who are united under the Manitoba Federation of Labour – to keep fighting for you.

In solidarity,

MGEU President Michelle Gawronsky