Winnipeg reaches labour deal with paramedics after 15 months of talks

The City of Winnipeg has reached a labour deal with its paramedics after 15 months of negotiations.

On Wednesday, city council's executive policy committee will consider a new collective bargaining unit with the Manitoba government and General Employees' Union Local 911, which represents 350 City of Winnipeg paramedics.

The union has been without a contract since Feb. 18, 2017 and started talking to the city about a new deal the following month. The tentative agreement would cover a four-year period from the expiration of the last contract until the end of February 2021, according to a report published Thursday.

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Winnipeg's paramedics would receive annual pay increases of two per cent a year throughout the life of the deal, the report states. These pay hikes are close to projected rises in the consumer price index, a measure of inflation, the report states.

The deal would cost the city an additional $3.4 million throughout the life of the contract, the report states.

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The deal arrives at a time when relations between MGEU 911 and the city remain sensitive. In March, fire-paramedic chief John Lane promised to improve relations with the paramedics serving under him after an arbitrator ruled he breached respectful workplace policies.

The city is also mulling a means of uploading paramedic services to provincial health authorities in the wake of concerns raised by Mayor Brian Bowman and council finance chair Scott Gillingham (St. James-Brooklands) about inadequate funding from the Pallister government.

PendingEPCapproval next week, thenew labour deal also faces council approval later this month.