Manitoba’s opposition Progressive Conservatives are upset with Premier Wab Kinew and his NDP government for voting against an Opposition Day motion they say would bring labour equality and equity to construction job sites in Manitoba.
The motion would have immediately reversed what Borderland MLA Josh Guenter, PC Critic for Labour, calls the divisive “Manitoba Jobs Agreement,” which favours unionized workers ahead of non-unionized workers.
“This so-called jobs agreement is clearly discriminatory,” Guenter said.
“The policy penalizes non-unionized workers. It needs to be scrapped immediately and replaced with a strategy to ensure that all Manitoba tradespeople can benefit from large government contracts, regardless of their union status.”
Last month, Kinew signed an agreement with a coalition of trade unions to prioritize unionized tradespeople on major public infrastructure projects in Manitoba. Contractors hiring workers for government-funded construction projects valued at $50 million or more are required to hire Manitoba unionized construction workers first, followed by non-unionized Manitobans, followed by Canadian union members, then non-unionized Canadian construction workers.
The Winnipeg Construction Association and the Construction Association of Rural Manitoba, which represent hundreds of construction companies that will be bidding on the government-funded projects, were not consulted in developing the Manitoba Jobs Agreement.
The organizations fear that the agreement will lead to higher construction costs and create a two-tiered system that favours unionized workers over open shop companies.
An estimated 80 per cent of construction workers in Manitoba are not unionized.
“This was a backroom deal between Wab Kinew and his union-boss pals,” Guenter said.
“Discriminating against non-unionized workers will drive those workers out of Manitoba, adding to the shortage of skilled labour. Taxpayers deserve the best possible value for their dollar and all qualified contractors should be able to bid on these contracts, whether they’re unionized or open shop.”
