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April 4, 2022 – Close to 230 Virtual delegates at the CUPE NB’s 59th Annual Convention reiterated their resolve to the “Bargaining Forward” campaign. Improving all workers’ wages above cost-of-living increases will remain a priority. The convention was held from April 1^st to April 2^nd with guests from across the country and CUPE delegates from all corners of our province. 

Mark Hancock, CUPE’s national president, and Candace Rennick, CUPE’s new national secretary-treasurer, addressed the delegates to celebrate the victorious 2021 CUPE strike in New Brunswick. CLC President Bea Bruske encouraged delegates to keep up their fight to improve public services and push for good legislation for the working class.

Election results:

• 1^st Vice-President (2-year term): Sharon Teare was re-elected
• Secretary-Treasurer (2-year term): Kimberly Copp was re-elected
• Trustee (3-year term): Faye Nowlan

Among resolutions passed, delegates voted for strong provincial anti-scab legislation, improved WorkSafeNB compensations for injured workers, and protections against privatization threats. Delegates also voted to improve the Division’s board representation in both official languages, ensuring francophones and anglophones have equitable communications and media presence.

The Higgs government has announced that it would increase Cabinet Ministers’ and the Premier’s salaries by 15%, effective April 1, 2022.

Fredericton – This Tuesday, March 22, NB Finance Minister Ernie Steeves presented the 2022-2023 provincial budget.

“This is a surplus budget, but there is good news to be found in affordable childcare, thanks to the Federal program fund, healthcare investments, and a one-year rent cap at 3.8% for residential tenants,” said Stephen Drost, President of CUPE NB.

Click here to see the GNB 2022-2023 budget

“The 2021 strike showed to all that Government had the ability to pay front-line workers and help them deal with cost-of-living increases. With the hundreds of millions still leftover in surplus, I wish Higgs would act to bring wages in long-term care up to par with those in healthcare,” added Drost.

CUPE NB is concerned with the anti-Keynesian approach chosen by the provincial government.  “Instead of reinvesting the revenue generated by corporate property in improving public services and building affordable public housing, Higgs chose to give tax cuts to big property owners while the economy is in an upswing,” said Drost.

“The Conservatives are cutting GNB’s ability to intervene in a positive manner by $112 million (by 2023) to give tax cuts to big property owners,” said Drost. This is done through the following:

• Property tax cuts (15%) to non-residential (industrial and commercial) property owners and other “residential” properties such as nursing homes; &
• Property tax cuts (50%) to non-owner-occupied residential properties (such as apartment and rental buildings).

“This will increase housing speculation and construction for higher-income tenants, but it will do little where the market has failed, such as is the case with affordable housing,” said Drost.

CUPE NB notes the lack of imagination and big vision shown in this budget. As we emerge out of the pandemic, New Brunswickers would greatly benefit from innovative ideas such as:

• A full network of 24/7 public health clinics for non-urgent care.
• Public daycare centres in public workspaces such as schools, universities, and hospitals
• Electrification of the school bus fleet
• Affordable public housing in rural areas
• A real immigration department to structure, improve, and better coordinate support for newcomers

Fredericton, March 16, 2022 – CUPE locals representing Part I of the NB public services (Local 1190, 1251, 1418 and 1840) and CUPE NB held a press conference today. The locals announced they have just filed a formal complaint with the NB Labour and Employment Board to demand immediate repayment of retroactive pay owed to close to more than 4,100 CUPE members (*this number does not include retirees who could be affected by this).

“The Government has failed to meet its own legal obligations under Section 63(1) of the Public Service Labour Relations Act to implement provisions of the new collective agreements within ninety days from the date of their execution. That includes making retroactive payments to workers – that means pay for work already done,” said Stephen Drost, President of CUPE NB.

In their joint complaint, the CUPE locals ask the Labour and Employment Board to declare that the employer has broken the law and order it to do the following:

1. Immediately implement the provisions of the collective agreements and make the payment of retroactive monies owed to the affected workers;
2. Immediately provide a detailed breakdown, for each affected worker, of the calculation of the retroactive monies owed to them to ensure no mistakes were made (as many vigilant Local 1840 members discovered their retro pay was riddled with errors).
3. Immediately pay compensatory damages to the affected workers; and
4. Immediately pay punitive damages to the affected workers due to the government’s egregious conduct.

“On March 14, during a pre-hearing conference with the Labour Board, we have heard GNB representatives say that they think they it could be until October 2022 until everybody is paid. This is absurd,” said Chris Curran, President of Local 1251.

The Government should have foreseen the need to prepare for eventual retro-pay adjustments. “This was obvious before the strike was even commenced, as the government had let the collective agreements of most locals remain expired for over 4 years,” said Shawna Morton, President of Local 1418.

“In healthcare, where payroll is handled internally and not through Service New Brunswick, they have completed the retro payments for over 9,000 members in Local 1252.  Finance and Treasury Board should have been ready to finish the job on time or in half the time it took in healthcare,” said Brent Wiggins, President of Local 1190.

“Why did they not provide the Service New Brunswick staff who handles the payroll with the proper resources to process it all?” asked Patricia Brewer, President of Local 1840. “Let’s be clear: I don’t blame the Service New Brunswick workers, I blame their employer for setting them up to fail,” she added.

At a hearing before the Labour Board scheduled on Monday, March 21, the CUPE locals will present their arguments in opposition to the employer’s applications in which it seeks an extension of the 90-day deadline for the payment of retroactive monies.  “Every day that goes by is an injustice to workers. We hope for a speedy resolve to this situation,” concluded Drost.

Hello,

I’m sure everyone is wondering about convention call, so here is a quick update:)

CUPE NB convention will be held virtually on April 1^st and 2^nd, 2022.

Registration will be online but directly to Encore, the tech company. Sandy, Steve, Sharon, Simon and I met with them yesterday by zoom and we should receive the updated quote very soon, as some things changed yesterday in regards to the quote we had received. This quote will dictate the price of registration as per our bylaws that state convention will be cost neutral. You will send payment to me at the below address. Please call if you have any questions.

As soon as we receive the info from Encore, the link to registration will be posted on the website and will go out through provincial presidents by email and also by mail.

Any local that didn’t receive resolutions forms by mail from me should please contact me as I don’t have the correct president’s mailing address. Some bounced back although many less than last year.

The provincial presidents all sent out resolutions forms and will do the same with convention call,  But please contact me at the info below if you don’t get it by mail with # of delegates allotted.

I’m working all weekend and have meetings Monday and Tuesday, but will also be working on this as I receive information.

Thank you and have a great week, thanks for all you do!!

Talk soon,

***

Bonjour,

  Je suis persuadée que tous se questionnent quant à la convocation au congrès, alors voici une brève mise à jour. 🙂

    Le congrès du SCFP NB aura lieu virtuellement les 1^er et 2 avril 2022.  

    L’inscription se fera directement en ligne via l’entreprise technologique Encore.   Sandy, Steve, Sharon, Simon et moi-même avons participé à une rencontre Zoom avec eux hier et devrions recevoir une soumission actualisée bientôt puisque des changements ont été apportés à la soumission reçue auparavant.   Cette soumission déterminera les frais d’inscription selon nos règlements qui prévoient que le congrès n’entraînerait pas de coûts supplémentaires.   Vos paiements devront m’être acheminés à l’adresse indiquée ci-dessous. Veuillez communiquer avec moi pour toute question. 

   Dès réception de l’information d’Encore, le lien pour l’inscription sera affiché sur le site Web et les présidentes/présidents en feront également la distribution par le biais de courriels et par la poste. 

Les sections locales n’ayant pas reçu par la poste les formulaires de résolutions de ma part doivent communiquer avec moi puisque je n’ai pas la bonne adresse postale de la présidente/du président. Certains messages ne sont pas parvenus aux destinataires ; par contre, bien inférieur à l’année dernière. 

   Les présidentes/présidents provinciaux ont distribué les formulaires de résolutions et feront de même avec la convocation au congrès. Mais veuillez communiquer avec moi aux coordonnées ci-dessous si vous ne le recevez pas avec l’attribution de délégués. 

   Je travaille toute la fin de semaine et serai en réunion lundi et mardi mais je donnerai également suite à toute information dès que reçue.  

  Merci pour tout ce que vous faites et bonne semaine!

                       A bientôt,

Fredericton, NB, Feb 9, 2022 – CUPE Local 1253, which represents 2500 school district bus drivers, custodians, and trade workers are frustrated by another unnecessary delay from the government to repay money owed to their pension plan.

Back on June 28, 2021, Arbitrator Elizabeth MacPherson ordered Blaine Higgs’s government to begin paying the $69+ million dollars owed to the Local 1253 pension plan. The government waited to the very last minute to file for a judicial review of Ms. MacPherson’s decision. The judicial review was supposed to be heard on Thursday, February 10, 2022, but it got canceled as the Government failed to file the required pre-hearing brief on time.

Excerpt from Arbitrator MacPherson’s decision

“CUPE 1253 filed its documents on time, but Government failed to do so for the judicial review they asked for,” said Iris Lloyd, President of Local 1253. “It’s been seven months already, and they have not yet paid back a cent of what is owed to our members,” added Lloyd.

While a rescheduled date has not been set, this could delay a hearing by months.  “Workers have waited long enough. It’s not acceptable that the government abused procedural timelines to avoid meeting their contractual obligations,” said Lloyd.

In addition to ignoring the arbitrator’s order, the Government has yet to engage meaningfully with CUPE 1253 to settle the expired collective agreement, prolonging the period during which a strike or lockout is possible.

“CUPE members go to work every day in good faith that they will be able to collect the pension they have been promised in retirement. Workers and retirees have upheld our end of the deal for decades by providing our labour and paying our portion of our own pension contributions,” said Lloyd.

Local 1253 informed the government on February 8 that it would not renew the expiring mobility agreement and would not accept that other workers do its bargaining unit work. “During the past month, custodians replaced teachers in the classrooms to assist with COVID-19-related issues as they had agreed to assist since the beginning of the pandemic. This will end with the expiry of the mobility agreement,” said Lloyd.

“Education workers in this province are tired of turning the other cheek. They deserve better from this Premier. He can delay and delay, but we are confident the court will uphold the arbitration decision,” concluded Lloyd.

Fredericton, Feb 4, 2022– The fight for retirement security remains a top priority for CUPE New Brunswick. CUPE and CUPE locals 946, 963, 1190, 1418, 1866, 1251, 2745, 3339, and 5026 continue to be added party plaintiffs to the constitutional challenge in PIPSC v. Province of New Brunswick; a case about upholding the Charter-protected right to free collective bargaining.

When Blaine Higgs was Finance Minister under Alward, he transformed the defined-benefit pension plan for thousands of public front-line workers into a more volatile and riskier “shared risk” plan. “The imposition of the shared risk plan means members pay more in contributions and must now retire at a more advanced age. On top of that, there is a loss of guaranteed indexing and a reduction in base pension amounts,” denounces Steve Drost, President of CUPE NB.

“The legislation unilaterally converted existing defined-benefit plans, and worst of all, it prohibited the union from trying to negotiate improvements through collective bargaining,” he added.

CUPE NB notes how this pension plan model shifted the risk of bearing financial market volatility almost entirely onto plan members and eliminated the promise that our earned pensions can’t be retroactively reduced. “By imposing this on Locals, we firmly believe the Government of New Brunswick has violated our right to free collective bargaining, and we will continue to pursue justice for our affected members,” said Drost.

“In addition to the PIPSC legal challenge, we will continue to support CUPE 1253, CUPE 2745 and the New Brunswick Council of Nursing Homes, whose defined benefit pension plans have been systematically underfunded by the Government of New Brunswick,” said Drost.

After a career in public service, CUPE members in all sectors can unfortunately only expect a very modest pension in retirement. “We know that having an adequate and secure workplace pension plan is what separates seniors with financial security from those experiencing poverty. Whether in the courts or in the streets, CUPE will always fight for workers to have a secure, adequate, and predictable retirement income,” concluded Drost.

– Earlier this week, Social Development Minister Bruce Fitch announced a 2-month (8 weeks) wage top-up for the community care workers who provide services to vulnerable residents and who earn less than $18 per hour.

“The $3 dollar wage top-up will help folks like me pay for groceries and heating, but it should be made permanent,” said Laurie Anderson, President of the New Brunswick Community Service Unions (NBCSU)

Today, the average wage for home support, special care home, and transition-house workers is around $15.50 an hour.

“There are thousands of workers, mostly women, who do underpaid essential work, and they need long-term support,” said Steve Drost, President of CUPE NB.

“Employers and Government must ensure that these top-ups go to the front lines, and are not rolled into general operating costs. During the previous adjustment, too many employers used the extra funding to avoid bargaining wage improvements,” denounced Drost.

In a press release, Minister Fitch said the top-up was an emergency measure, which should end on March 14^th. “I share the Coalition for Pay Equity’s hope on the matter: we need to see a permanent solution inscribed in the March provincial budget,” concluded Anderson.

The NBCSU represents over 500 workers in the community care sector throughout New Brunswick. This includes workers in home support, group homes, special care homes, transition houses, and more.