Worst Government Ever - Part IV, Labour Relations

This part comes as an important addition to the original series, and it deals with labour relations. The Government of New Brunswick is the biggest employer in the Province, with about 45,000 people on the payroll, including nurses, teachers, NB Power, social workers, general civil servants, and so on. It goes without saying that a huge portion of the annual budget is paid out in salaries to people who provide services.

Obviously, managing “the wage bill” is very important for any competent government that wants to balance the books. But according to the Shawn Graham Government, it is more important to be liked than to be right.

Recently, the SGG announced that all government workers would be subject to a two year wage freeze. This came directly on the heels of the cowardly leaked announcement that they had mismanaged spending so badly that they were actually going to table a budget for next year with an $800 million deficit. This is roughly the equivalent of adding $1,000 to the Visa bill of every single person or baby living in New Brunswick. And we all know how easy it is to pay those bills off.

So when the government announces there will be a 2 year wage freeze, everyone of course thinks back to Frank McKenna and his famous “0% increase days” in the recession of the early 1990’s. We all remember Premier McKenna bravely announcing that that the economy had gone down the tubes, and that everyone, and I mean everyone, was getting no increases for a couple of years until the province got back on its feet. This was announced weeks after the then Liberal government had signed a contract with the Nurses Union, a very powerful lobby group in New Brunswick. Many protests were had, but in the end the voters did not punish the McKenna Liberals because people recognized it was a bad time but everyone was being treated the same. It wasn’t right of them to negotiate in such bad faith, but no one could successfully argue against the decision on that basis alone.

Fast forward 15 years and now we have the Shawn Graham Liberals in exactly the same position. Unfortunately, we are quickly learning that Shawn ain’t no Premier McKenna. Because just like in the early 1990’s we are facing a global economic recession, and everyone has to bite the bullet. And just like Premier McKenna, the current bunch of bananas just signed last month a big fat juicy contract with the powerful nurses union. And just like Premier McKenna, they have announced a 0% wage increase policy. But the BIG difference between the two is this: Frank imposed the wage freeze on everyone at the same time and during the economic crisis. Whereas Shawn “I like to be liked” Graham has decided to postpone the wage freeze for anyone who just signed a contract.

What does this mean? Well for 5,800 nurses it means that even though we are having an economic crisis today, right now, they are still going to get every penny of their new contract increases until it expires - - - in December of 2010. At that point (probably once the crisis has passed) then they are supposedly going to have a two year wage freeze.

But wait there’s more. The nurses weren’t the only ones to get in under the wire. The major health care workers union, representing 8,300 employees signed in late September (just as the economy was starting to unravel) and guess what - their members are going to get increases of 12% to 50% over a four year period ending in June of 2011. Then they will supposedly have a wage freeze.

But wait, there’s even more. The nurses and other health care workers aren’t the only ones who have signed a fat juicy contract with the SGG. In December Smiling Kelly Lamrock signed an even bigger and longer contract with 7,500 teachers, a contract that does not expire until February 2012 - at which point - you guessed it - they will supposedly have a two year wage freeze.

Just to recap, here’s the situation. Shawn Graham has announced a wage freeze on all government workers, with the small print that it doesn’t apply to those who have recently signed a contract. In fact, they have recently signed big fat juicy contracts with HALF OF THE GOVERNMENT - so those folks won’t get wage freezes for another two years, or three years, or four years. Does anyone really believe any of those people will have their wages frozen in 2012 - long after the recession is over?

The result is two classes of government workers - those with big fat juicy contracts and those who are frozen. But hey, it’s totally worth it if Shawn doesn’t have to stand on the steps of the legislature with a bullhorn, like Premier McKenna did, and explain his decisions to an angry mob. Right?