Striking employees of the Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) have voted "overwhelmingly" to reject the latest offer made by the Crown corporation, according to the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union (MGEU).
The union representing the 1,700 MPI employees on strike since late August said its membership's rejection vote means picketing will resume today.
MPI's offer included a four-year package with annual raises of around 3%, as well as a $1,800 signing bonus for full-time employees.
Ahead of the vote, MGEU president Kyle Ross had said this offer is "sufficiently improved" from previous ones but added that it still "falls short" of the expectations set by Manitoba's new NDP government.
And now that the strike is entering its tenth week, Ross has called for a return to the bargaining table to resume negotiations.
"There has been a disconnect between the new government's messages of support for our members and what we have seen from the employer at the bargaining table," Ross said in a news release. "Let's get back to the table and negotiate a contract that provides fair wages for members and gets them back to work helping Manitobans."
MGEU's members are expected to picket the Manitoba Legislature in Winnipeg, in addition to resuming its usual picketing locations throughout the province.
The NDP government recently replaced most of the MPI board and said it is committed to ending the strike.
"We have asked the [new] board to move quickly to get to work to begin the negotiations, or reset the relationship and start negotiating, but we're not being prescriptive on a timeline," said Matt Wiebe, Manitoba justice minister and the minister in charge of MPI.
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