Winnipeg City Councillor Kevin Klein serving Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood
The City of Winnipeg has missed a critical deadline in a multi-million dollar labour contract. A deadline all parties have respected the significance of over the years of negotiations.
October 19, The United Fire Fighters Of Winnipeg (UFFW) sent a letter to the City of Winnipeg, Mayor Bowman, and all City Councillors. The UFFW provided precedent where the City of Winnipeg did not allow the paramedics to negotiate when their Union missed the proposal deadline.
In the letter, the UFFW said, "There is no past practice or estoppel here. There is simply a failure by the City to meet its deadlines, both pursuant to the Collective Agreement and pursuant to the Act and, as the City successfully argued against MGEU in 2010 and in 2012, there are consequences to that disaster of its own making."
This failure to meet a required deadline can have a financial impact on taxpayers. The Mayor promised to stop paying the UFFW President's salary this contract. How do we address the benefit of paying out sick time?
It's unfortunate our Mayor, and EPC don't have the experience managing executives or CBA's. We have missed the most basic steps in negotiation preparations. There should have been discussions on housekeeping items, key objectives (wants), and needs in the upcoming CBA, and it should have begun months ago.
In a statement to the media, the Mayor's office refused to comment because of ongoing negotiations. However, the UFFW stated the first meeting to discuss the Union's proposals wasn't until October 28.
Are elected officials suppose to work for the Public Service? Or are they suppose to hold the Public Service accountable on behalf of taxpayers? That's not happening under this administration.