Manitoba Hydro temporarily cutting 200 jobs, many of them front-line workers

Response times for electricity outages will sufferas Manitoba Hydrotemporarily lays off 200 employees to meet provincial cost-saving demands, saysa union leader.

The vast majority of workerstargeted forfour-month layoffs, announced by the Crown corporation Friday, are field staffwho respond to storms and fix equipment, said MikeEspenell, business manager forInternational Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2034.

"It will definitely havean effect on our ability to respond," he said.

Espenell said the layoffs are at odds with comments from Premier Brian Pallister, who has routinely praisedfront-line workers during the pandemic.

"Our staff have workedright through this," Espenell said. "They're not sitting at home."

Hydro CEO Jay Grewal announced the layoffs in a memo to staff on Friday morning.

'Not our preferred course of action'

"This absolutely was not our preferred course of action," Grewal wrote.

The Crown corporationwas left withno choice but to lay off members from IBEWLocal 2034 which represents most front-line field employees, such as workers atgenerating stations and on transmission lines and Unifor, according toGrewal.

Hydro couldn't reach an agreement on another method tofindlabour cost savings, she said.

Officials with the corporation are still consulting with theCanadian Union of Public Employeeson a potential strategy.

The 200 temporary layoffs aren't nearlyas dire as the 600 to 700 layoffs Hydro said last month would beneeded to meet provincial demands to save $11 million. Negotiationsfollowed with unions and layoffs have been avoided in some cases.

Grewalsaid Friday she hopes Hydro can maintain service levels with fewer staff.

"We will make all efforts to minimize the impact of these temporary layoffs on service to customers, while also maintaining the safety of our system and employees in every aspect of our operation."

Of the 190 IBEW members targeted for layoffs, 95 per centwork on the front lines,Espenell said.

Last October, those same workers were celebrated for responding to the freak snowstormthat knocked downtrees and power lines in southern Manitoba.

"It appearsthat not that many months later, it's very much, 'What have you done for me lately?'" he said.

The Progressive Conservativegovernment has insisted Hydro must cutspending in non-essential areas to help the Manitoba government respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A dozen members of Unifor are also slated to be laid off, said Victor Diduch, acting president of Unifor Local 681. Many of those are the employees who would respond in the event ofagas leak orexplosion.

"It's like taking firemen out ofgoing to a fire," he said. "The less people you have, the longer things take."

Grewal acknowledged in her email the news will behard for employees to hear.

"This isdifficult information I am communicating to you today. I want all of you to know that we worked hard to avoid getting to this point. The reality is we have no more flexibility," shesaid.

"I urge you all to continue to support each other and work safely as we move through this challenging period."

Some employees accept unpaid days

Another group of Hydro employees the Association of Manitoba Hydro Staff and Supervisory Employeesaccepted three unpaid days off in lieu of layoffs, Grewalstated.

The union joins the Manitoba Hydro Professional Engineers' Association, utilityexecutives and other senior staff in choosing to dock their pay over 20 pay periods, beginning June 25, to stave off any layoffs.

Espenelland Diduch said the three-day proposal wasn't acceptable to them, because itwould have required violating thecollective bargaining agreement they negotiatedwith Hydro.

Opposition NDP Leader Wab Kinewcast blame on Pallister'sfocus on cost-cutting.

"Two hundredfront-line job cuts are a clear sign that Mr. Pallister is willing to cause chaos and hurt to working families for partisan, ideological reasons," he said in a statement.