Demystifying New Brunswick's Labour Strike

For a special "New Brunswick Labour Negotiations" episode of NB debrief on CHCO-TV, host Tobin Haley sat down with CUPE NB President Steve Drost and the regional director of CUPE Maritimes Sandy Harding for a conversation on the strike action by nearly 20,000 CUPE members in New Brunswick.

"Today we are going to talk about the strike," said Haley at the start of the episode. "Since October 29, 2021, nearly 20,000 public service workers have been on strike. Although some hospital workeres have been mandated back to work under an emergency order, bus drivers, custodians, and parol officers are still on strike. It seems to me that you are at a bit of an impass, and that impass is around pensions. My understanding is that when the unions originally went to negotiate with the government, the original issue was about wages. How did pensions get on the table."

"You are correct," said Drost, "When the 10 locals agreed to meet with the Premier and form the centralized bargaining team to wrap up these contracts that have been due for three, four or five years, we made it very clear that we were working on a campaign to improve worker wages to keep up with the cost of living. What happened in the bargaining was Local 1253 and 2745 were asked to sign a memorandum of understanding to convert their pensions in order for the 10 groups to get wages, and we felt that was unfair. These workers have never missed a payment into these plans."

"The average CUPE pension plan is about $8,000 per year, so these aren't exactly gold-plated pension plans," said Harding. "We are the lowest paid of the lowest paid."