Workers with Métis, Michif child and family services agencies hit picket line

CBC

25-03-2025

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Workers with two Métis and Michif child and family services agencies hit the picket line on Tuesday, saying they're fighting for wages in line with other agencies in Manitoba.
"We are fighting for wage parity and unfortunately, at the bargaining table, we have yet to see it. We know it's possible," Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union president Kyle Ross said at a picket line outside the Métis Child and Family Services building on Portage Avenue in Winnipeg.
"Talking to these people today, it's not where they want to be."
Ross said the gap in wages leads to high turnover rate at the agencies, affecting the ability to build relationships and trust with the children and families the agencies serve.
Workers are asking for a contract similar to the four-year, 14 per cent wage increase MGEU members in other civil services got last year, Ross previously told CBC.
Social services, family support, youth care and administrative workers at the two agencies — Métis Child, Family and Community Services, and Michif Child and Family Services — voted for a strike mandate in December and issued a two-week strike notice earlier this month.
The contracts for 220 employees of the Winnipeg-area Métis Child, Family and Community Services, and 110 employees of Michif Child and Family Services, serving the Dauphin, The Pas and Brandon areas, expired on Jan. 31, 2023.
Workers with a third agency — Southeast Child and Family Services — had also voted in favour of strike action but reached a tentative agreement on Monday, he said.
About 170 workers at Southeast Child and Family Services, which provides services to eight First Nations in southeastern Manitoba, have been without a contract since March 31, 2022. A ratification vote on the tentative offer is planned for later this week, MGEU said in a Monday update on its website.
Since the two-week strike notice was issued, some progress has been made for members at the Métis and Michif agencies, but there hasn't been enough action on wage parity with other government workers, Ross said.
"They do the same work, they have the same education. It's really important to us that they are treated as equal as the other people who are paid who work in government, who work for other agencies," he said.
When asked, Ross did not say how many children or families would be affected by the limited services offered under the essential services agreement in place during the strike action, but said he hopes to get back to the bargaining table as quickly as possible to prevent any further reduction in care.
The union's wage concerns are compounded by layoffs in the sector, said Ross.
Earlier this month, the Manitoba Métis Federation said budget constraints led to 60 people being laid off from the Métis Child and Family Services Authority — which includes both the Métis and Michif Child and Family Services — with a total of 100 to 150 staff at risk of eventually being let go.
Ross called that a "heavy-handed" bargaining tactic.
"We really feel it's the employer trying to push down on these workers and trying to scare them into taking a less than ideal agreement," he said.