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November 14, 2021 – Last night, a tentative agreement was reached between the 11 CUPE Locals part of the Centralized Bargaining Team and the NB Government. All workers are to return to work immediately as strike activities are held off pending ratification from the general membership.

CUPE Locals 1190, 1251, 1252, 1253, 1418, 1840, 1866, 2745, 5017 & 5026, had been on strike since October 29, 2021. CUPE Local 963, representing Alcool NB Liquor (ANBL) workers joined the Centralized Bargaining Team after conducting successful strike votes last week. They also reached a tentative agreement this Saturday.

“Most workers had been without a contract for over three, four years, so I am pleased they have an agreement they can vote on in the coming days,” said Stephen Drost, President of CUPE NB.

Late in 2020, Premier Blaine Higgs had announced his intentions to impose a wage freeze on all public sector workers. “Despite the pandemic pressure, the recruitment and retention crisis, despite CUPE’s repeated appeals to reason, Higgs did not want to offer fair wages to workers,” said Drost. What is in today’s tentative agreement has only been possible through collective action, perseverance, and determination of all union members,” said Drost.

More than 20 000 CUPE members were involved in what has become New Brunswick’s biggest legal general strike.

From day one, the union’s goal at the bargaining table was always obtaining real wage improvements that go above the cost of living. “This is key to improve NB’s public services, services that we need now more than ever as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Drost.

Details of the agreement will not be released until members can see it first during ratification votes later this week.

PICKET LOCATIONS (7am to 6pm)

***REGION 1 – CAMPBELLTON***
Main: Corner of George Street and Roseberry avenue, near the Irving

REGION 2 – MIRAMICHI
Main: WALK UP AND DOWN THE ROAD FROM NEWCASTLE SHOPPERS TO MILLER AVENUE AND BACK
Overflow: WALK UP AND DOWN THE ROAD FROM MCDONALDS ON KING GEORGE UNTIL TIM HORTONS AND BACK
Overflow: WELLINGTON & UNIVERSITY

REGION 3 – MONCTON
Main: Mapleton/Trinity
Overflow: Champlain mall

REGION 4 – SUSSEX
Main: CORNER OF MAIN & MOFFETT
Overflow: CORNER OF LEONARD DRIVE & MAIN

REGION 5 – SAINT JOHN
Main: MCALLISTER DRIVE AREA
Overflow: LANDSDOWNE & MAIN

REGION 6 – FREDERICTON
Main: WALK UP AND DOWN THE ROAD FROM FREDERICTON INN TO ARNOLD STREET LIGHTS AND RETURN (SOUTH SIDE)
Overflow: WALK UP AND DOWN THE ROAD FROM WALLACE & MAIN TO FULTON & MAIN AND BACK (NORTH SIDE)

REGION 7 – WOODSTOCK
Main: CORNER OF DEAKIN/CONNELL TO EVERETT/CONNELL & BACK

***REGION 8 – ST. STEPHEN***
Main: Traffic circle by the highway.

REGION 9 – EDMUNDSTON
Main: CORNER OF BOULEVARD HÉBERT AND RUE DE L’ÉGLISE
Overflow: WALK UP AND DOWN VICTORIA STREET IN FRONT OF SUPERSTORE INTERSECTION

REGION 10 – PERTH
Main: CORNER OF TRIBE ROAD AND DOWN RTE 109

REGION 11 – BATHURST
Main: CORNER OF SAINT PETERS AND ROUTE 180
Overflow: CORNER OF ST-ANNE AND ST. PETERS TO SUPERSTORE AND BACK

REGION 12 – TRACADIE
Main: corner of rue Principal and Du Moulin

REGION 13 – SAINT QUENTIN
Main: 4 rue Saint-Camille, Kedgwick

REGION 14 – BOUCTOUCHE
Main: OVERPASS BETWEEN TIM HORTONS AND IRVING, AND BACK

SATELLITES

Salisbury
In front of Gold Medal Restaurant

Richibouctou
corner of route 134 and rue Cartier

Sackville
Corner of York & Main BUT closer to the Dollar Store side

Dalhousie
On the sidewalk in front of Irving to the Esso (Renfrew & Goderich)

Grand Falls
Madawaska & Broadway

Oromocto
Overflow: One Gateway drive (roundabout)

Harvey/McAdam 
Canada Post to WWE Smith General store, and back

Chipman/Minto
Corner Route 10 & Union Street

Caraquet 
Boulevard St-Pierre Ouest, between Tims & the mall, do not pass Tims

Shippigan
In front of the mall

Lamèque 
Intersection Pêcheur North and Rue Principale, do not pass the Coop

Grand Manan 
Corner of Pettes Cove Drive & Route 776 (up from ferry terminal)

Boiestown
On the sidewalk in front of Canada Post to the General Store and back

Hampton 
On the sidewalk in front of Canada Post Canada Post to Town Square and back

Nackawic
Corner of Landegger Drive and Route 105

Bath
Corner of Hospital and Route 105

Néguac 
Corner Egbert/Principale Rd (Close to Pub 981)

Quispamsis KV
Intersection of Campbell Drive / Hampton Road and Pettinghill Road
Overflow: Marr Road / Hampton Road and Clark Road

During a press conference held on November 9, 2021, CUPE Local 963, representing workers at Alcool NB Liquor (ANBL) released the results of their strike vote. “Members voted overwhelmingly to strike, with 97.7% in favour,” said Local 963 President Jamie Agnew.

The overwhelming strike mandate comes along very high participation, with over 521 having cast their vote among the 566 workers who are part of Local 963. The vote was conducted from November 3 to November 6, 2021.

“The Crown Corporation retail and warehouse employees are mobilized and ready. They have voted to strike over fair wages and respect from their employer, and they mean it,” said Agnew.

Workers are notably frustrated by the Premier’s obstruction to block the tentative deal they had reached a year ago with ANBL Management. “We had a deal, and Higgs blocked it because our deal did not fit in his plan to freeze public sector wages,” added Agnew.

“Wages that go above the cost of living is the priority,” said Agnew. “Whether in retail or at the warehouse, our members have been going full tilt since the pandemic started, delivering record sales. They definitely deserve a fair deal,” he added.

In 2020-2021, the Crown Corporation reported a record sales result to date: $506 million and a net income of $199 million.

“We did all we could to respectfully get this solved at the table, but the employer has forced these workers to strike. Hopefully, we can reach a deal with GNB before our members hit the picket lines on November 16,” said Agnew.

Local 963 represents more than 566 members in the 41 publicly owned and run retail outlets and warehouses of ANBL.

Hon. Premier Higgs and honourable members of cabinet,

The Centralized Bargaining Team was presented with your last package on November 4th, 2021, in which wages clearly remained contingent on Local 2745 and Local 1253 signing a memorandum of agreement on Pension reform.After the delegation presented your offer to the Centralized Bargaining Team, we responded with a counteroffer,which the Treasury Board received in the early morning of November 5th.

We continue to hear you saying in the media and directly to our members that they should vote on “the offer”. We ask that you come back to the table immediately to resolve this labour unrest and provide clarification as to what“offer” you are referring to. We have yet to receive a response to our counteroffer.

We want to clarify: for members to vote, there needs to be a signed tentative agreement reached between the parties (Finance and Treasury Board & Centralized Bargaining team). There is no tentative agreement at this time. The tentative agreement and ratification process is a long-standing process that both sides fully understand.

The Centralized Bargaining team would like to reiterate that on August 17, 2021 you met with the leaders of these locals to propose a Centralized Bargaining format to deal with wages. You also stated that all other nuances would be negotiated at each individual table after the wages were agreed upon. Since then, you have made wage offers contingent to two locals’ pension reform.

Furthermore, in the last package, the wage offer was contingent to the Locals agreeing to remove all outstanding items that remained on the bargaining tables. In our opinion, that would include the pension plans for Local 1253 and Local 2745 as they are also outstanding items.

We ask that you respond to the Centralized Bargaining Team’s package that you received on November 5th, 2021 or return to the bargaining table to resolve the wage package. The sooner this can happen, the sooner the frontline workers can return to work to provide frontline services for all New Brunswickers.

Sincerely,
The CUPE Centralized Bargaining Team