Pension Changes Remain Key Issue In CUPE Labour Dispute

Contentious pension changes remain a key sticking point in the ongoing labour dispute between CUPE New Brunswick and the province.

The province wants to convert the defined benefit plans for two school-based locals, which Premier Blaine Higgs has said are significantly underfunded.

But the president of CUPE Local 1253, one of the two locals impacted, said the only reason those plans are underfunded is because of Higgs himself.

During a news conference Tuesday, Iris Lloyd referenced a ruling by an arbitrator which found the Higgs government owes $69 million to their plan.

“Premier Higgs is making the offer conditional on the back of CUPE 1253’s defined pension plan,” Lloyd told reporters. “CUPE 1253 at this time is not willing to pay for our wages on the backs of our defined pension plan with the money that he owes that plan.”

CUPE Local 2745, the other local that would be impacted by pension changes, also claimed its plan is underfunded by $30 million.

The province’s offer to CUPE said it would not be required to address any potential unfunded liability as the new retirement plan would be fully funded.

“This is why Higgs is so obsessed with converting education workers’ pension plans. He wants to be off the hook for the millions he owes to the frontline workers,” said Lloyd.

The premier’s office did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

Stephen Drost, the president of CUPE New Brunswick, said the premier seems to be changing his mind on a daily basis.

The government offer to CUPE in early September mentioned converting the two pension plans to the shared-risk model, which the union opposed.

But when speaking to reporters on Monday, Higgs said the union would not have to agree to enter a shared-risk plan.

“Basically what we’re asking, the parties would agree and mandate their respective actuaries to negotiate in good faith the specific terms and conditions of a new retirement vehicle. I don’t know what that looks like,” he said.

Drost, however, said Tuesday that it was the first time he and the union had heard of that proposal.

“The package that he wanted to come back and present and we said we could not recommend had a memorandum of understanding that he wanted these two groups to sign and it was 110 per cent a memorandum for them to transfer their pensions into a targeted-benefit plan and a shared-risk plan,” he said.

The province presented what it called a final offer to CUPE late Thursday night which, in addition to the pension changes, included an annual two per cent wage increase over five years, plus a 25-cent hourly wage adjustment each year.

CUPE presented a similar counter-offer, with a 50-cent hourly wage adjustment in years four and five, and the removal of the pension changes. Drost said Tuesday they had yet to hear back from the premier’s office on the counter-offer.