Higgs wants striking employees to be willing to discuss pension changes

Premier Blaine Higgs says talks with the Canadian Union of Public Employees could resume within days, but he wants to see the union more willing to talk about pensions.

Higgs and his government were pounded inside the legislature by opposition parties and outside by a large, noisy throng of striking CUPE members and supporters as the legislature reconvened for the first time since June.

The labour dispute dominated Question Period, with the Liberals and Greens pressing him to move quickly to make a deal.

"This is not a chicken dance," Opposition Liberal Leader Roger Melanson said, referring to the premier's onstage gyrations during New Brunswick Day celebrations in August. "This is serious."

Melanson accused the premier of dancing from position to position on the strike as well, threatening back-to-work legislation on the one hand while offering to talk on the other.

"It's confusing, all over the place, disoriented, disorganized," he said.

Higgs told reporters he is prepared to talk to CUPE. 

"I'd be, certainly, be willing to do that," he said. "I'd expect that one way or the other there will be some discussions about next steps and that would be getting back to the table." 

But he said if talks resume, "there's got to be an openness that it's because we're going to find a resolution, not because we spent two or three or four or five or six days on the picket line."

The government and the union have made competing wage proposals only one percentage point apart. 

A key sticking point is the premier's push to add the CUPE local representing school bus drivers to the province's shared-risk pension plan, a regime that relieves the province of having to top up pension shortfalls with taxpayer dollars.

In return, Higgs is offering to bring 2,200 educational assistants into the plan, giving them a pension for the first time.

He is accusing CUPE of resisting the shift to shared-risk for the bus drivers because the national parent union has been fighting shared-risk plans Canada-wide.

But opposition leaders say it's Higgs who is being stubborn.

"Putting this pension issue on the table, which is only affecting two locals, is taking hostage the rest," Melanson said.

Green Party leader David Coon urged Higgs to put the issue aside.

"It's pure insanity that he's insisting that this pension issue be dealt with in the context of these negotiations," Coon said.

"He's got to stop that, take it off the table. He'll be back to the table immediately if he does that and we'll have a fair wage settlement before the end of the week. I can guarantee you that." 

Higgs said Tuesday there's been no further discussion about back-to-work legislation to force an end to the strike.

But he said that if that happens, the bill will be far-reaching, imposing wage settlements not just on the more than 20,000 CUPE members in the current dispute but on 55,000 unionized public-sector employees.

"Whatever we do with CUPE, it will apply to 55,000 employees," Higgs said, meaning "all unions. … It would be our wage mandate for government if we did that."

He said that would include nurses, who have twice rejected tentative agreements this year.

"If you look at legislation that has been put in on a wage bill anywhere in the country, you don't pick and choose. It is the wage bill for government."

But he added, "It's not my goal to have a legislated wage mandate. That's not my goal. I certainly would like to have a negotiated settlement."