CUPE warns other unions not to trust New Brunswick premier

A dispute over pensions that prolonged the 2021 strike by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in New Brunswick is again causing a heated conflict between the public sector union and the Higgs government.

Only two CUPE contracts, both for provincial education workers, have defined-benefit pension plans locked in. The CUPE 1253 contract covers 2,800 school district bus drivers, custodians and trade workers, and the CUPE 2745 agreement protects 4,400 educational support staff.

Premier Higgs’ insistence on opening the pension clauses for those two CUPE locals during contract negotiations in 2021 was the main reason the province-wide CUPE strike lasted 16 days. It was only after the premier withdrew the pension concession at the bargaining table that CUPE ended its picket and settled on a wage hike for 22,000 CUPE members. It had been the biggest strike in Canada that year.

Now Blaine Higgs is again attempting to move the CUPE educational workers to a shared risk pension. Last week his Finance and Treasury Board informed CUPE that if locals 1253 and 2745 do not accept the change, the government would consider introducing legislation this week to override the negotiated agreements and transfer the pension plans to an existing shared risk plan.

Presidents of both CUPE locals are warning other unions that Higgs wants to break their contracts and is not to be trusted. At a media event Tuesday morning, school custodian Iris Lloyd, CUPE 1293 president, said that Higgs’ threat “is a betrayal of the very process he championed.”

CUPE 2745 president Theresa McAlister asked: “if the government can break its promise to us, what’s to stop them from breaking other promises?”

Higgs’ plan to end defined-benefit pensions in the provincial public sector has been underway for a decade. As finance minister in the Alward government in 2014, Higgs forced through a shared risk pension plan for most provincial public servants despite vigorous opposition by CUPE and other public sector unions. During an intense round of bargaining prior to the 2021 strike, Higgs introduced pension concessions that CUPE called bad faith negotiations, and during the strike Higgs himself acknowledged that his demand for a change in pensions was the biggest obstacle to a settlement.

After the government removed its pension demand and the strike ended, the two sides agreed to settle the pensions question through a negotiated process that Higgs proposed. If negotiations reached an impasse, the pensions issue would be sent to a board with three actuaries to determine a settlement. In September this year, after the pension negotiations proved fruitless, CUPE asked to move into the agreed actuarial process, but the government refused.

At the Tuesday media event, CUPE urged the government to follow the process established in the signed agreements. The union promised that if the premier breaks his promise, “there will be consequences.” CUPE New Brunswick president Steve Drost said Higgs’ threat is an attack on free collective bargaining.

Tuesday afternoon saw the conflict spill into the Legislative Assembly. Kent North MLA Kevin Arseneau accused the government of “ripping up” the collective agreement that ended the 2021 CUPE strike and setting a dangerous precedent that threatened the integrity of the labour relations system, adding “I guess it has become normal to expect that this government cannot keep a deal. Old habits and obsessions keep creeping up,” citing the premier’s “my way or the highway approach.”

During a heated exchange between the premier and the Green Party’s Arseneau, Higgs accused CUPE of stalling the negotiations and demanding a solution to the pensions issue that would cost taxpayers a billion dollars. He said: “There is no breach, there is no lack of trust, there is only misinformation being put forward.”

After Higgs made that statement, CUPE members watching the exchange from the visitor’s gallery erupted, with calls of “shame.” Chanting “Higgs no trust” they exited the gallery. Afterwards, the premier told reporters he will introduce and pass his threatened legislation before the Christmas break.

CUPE regional director Sandy Harding said the union would fight the legislation and was confident that a legal challenge would end in CUPE’s favour, given that negotiated contracts are binding and protected by the Charter. CUPE is the largest union in New Brunswick and in Canada.

Susan O’Donnell writes for the NB Media Co-op.