Hydro workers back on picket line

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/03/2021 (2041 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Hydro workers in Brandon went back to the picket line on Tuesday, joining the roughly 2,300 electrical workers who went on strike across the province as of 1:30 p.m.

Just like their previous demonstration on March 12, these local members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2034 protested outside of Manitoba Hydro’s offices on 10th Street and near the city’s generating station located on Victoria Avenue East.

However, unlike this single-day affair, these demonstrations in Brandon and across the province are expected to last until 8 a.m. Thursday, by which time IBEW Local 2034 business manager Mike Espenell hopes that they can negotiate a different four-year contract.

Espenell told the Sun on Tuesday that this recent round of demonstrations was brought about after the vast majority of IBEW members — 88 per cent of those who voted — decided to reject the Crown corporation’s latest offer on Tuesday morning.

This offer, a four-year deal for 2019 through 2022, proposes a zero per cent wage increase in the first two years, then increases of 0.75 per cent in 2021 and one per cent for 2022.

Manitoba Hydro media representative Bruce Owen told the Sun in an email that the deal also includes benefit improvements and an extension of a “no-layoff” clause for the 2021-22 fiscal year.

However, Espenell said the wage increases outlined in this offer still do not keep pace with the cost of living in Manitoba and are therefore unacceptable.

“I think we’re been very reasonable,” he said. “From the get-go, our proposal was the cost of living, we weren’t doubling or tripling anything. We’re just looking to maintain and stay where we are.”

While Owen didn’t comment on the substance of IBEW’s grievances in his statement to the Sun, he did mention that Manitoba Hydro representatives are assessing the best way to resolve the strike.

“No decisions have been made yet,” he wrote.

In the meantime, Owen stated the Crown corporation has contingency plans in place to make sure that electric services are maintained throughout this period of uncertainty.

“Public safety is our number one priority, and we will do everything we can to ensure we respond to issues as quickly as possible until the strike is over,” he wrote.

Espenell said his fellow union members also wish for a quick end to this strike, but only if Manitoba Hydro is willing to go back to the bargaining table in good faith.

“We’re willing to sit down and work a deal or let a third party get involved and arbitrate this,” he said. “But it’s been so slow and very frustrating for everybody involved in this process.”

Earlier this month, Espenell told the Sun that this recent round of strikes from IBEW Local 2034 follows 28 months of negotiating with the Crown corporation.

Before this latest round of protests, the last time IBEW members went on strike was late 2009.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson