N.B. Government Reaches Tentative Agreement With CUPE
FREDERICTON – The N.B. government reached a tentative agreement on the weekend with the seven local bargaining units represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees in Parts I, II and III of the public service.
The agreement comes 16 days after over 20,000 CUPE New Brunswick workers in several sectors walked off the job and hit the picket line.
“This has indeed have been a long process, and we are extremely pleased to have reached a resolution with these important groups of employees,” said Premier Blaine Higgs during a media conference.
Workers did not return to the picket line on Sunday and were instead to show up for work “as soon as operationally feasible.”
Details of the agreement will not be released until ratification, according to the premier.
“I know it’s always an unknown until the vote is taken … (CUPE NB President) Stephen Drost and I have been communicating back and forth, and are both optimistic that the tentative agreement will be ratified,” said Higgs.
“We’re both confident to get people back to work … and that is an indication that we’re all ready to move on,” the premier mentioned.
Premier Higgs also brought up that schools will reopen on Monday.
“Once we had a tentative agreement signed we wanted to get the schools back up and running, and that’s why we had people who said they would come in on (Sunday) to get the schools ready, so students can come in Monday morning, rather than lose another day or two.”
CUPE New Brunswick indicated in their own release that CUPE 2745 and CUPE 1253 arrived at a “proposed Memorandum of Agreement” on pensions, which has been a sticking point in negotiations.
The wage proposal made to the seven local bargaining teams (1190, 1418, 1840, 1251, 1252, 1253, 2745) will be made available to three Part 4 locals: CUPE Locals 1866 (Worksafe NB), 5017 (NBCC) and 5026 (CCNB).
In addition, CUPE says local 963 representing ANBL is also finalizing a tentative agreement; However, the province has not confirmed these details.
“I know they’ve been negotiating, so they will make their own announcement when the time comes, I’m hopeful we won’t see a labour disruption there, but we should learn something in the coming days,” Higgs said during the media conference.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that over 600 NB Liquor employees could walk off the job after voting overwhelmingly in favour of strike.
By Robert Lothian, a reporter with 91.9 The Bend in Moncton, and Tim Head, a reporter with CHSJ/Country 94 in Saint John.