Higgs once praised 'fair' union wages he now says are too high

New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs is critical of what he says are high wages for striking public sector workers, but in real terms they were higher six years ago following increases Higgs himself approved as finance minister.  

He praised the higher rates at the time as "fair to both employees and taxpayers." 

That's not the position he has taken recently as the labour dispute that has pitted thousands of New Brunswick government employees in multiple union locals against the province drags into its fifth day.

 A central issue in the confrontation, according to labour historian and University of New Brunswick professor emeritus David Frank, is what, if anything, should be done about the erosion of employee wages by inflation.

"Do we want them to have good jobs ... or do we want services at the cheapest possible price?" Frank said in an interview with CBC News on Monday. 

"Obviously there's a distinction, and CUPE's bargaining position is that real wages should not be going down in the face of inflation."  

Last Friday, when the strike began, Higgs said that should not be a concern because public-sector wages and benefits are better than those available from private employers and can withstand some erosion.

"The wages are very good in the public sector," Higgs told CBC News, in explaining why matching the cost of living is not an issue he sympathizes with.

"I know it's easy to argue inflation," he said. "But it's where you start. And what I'm seeing here is that they're starting at a very strong level."

Higgs appeared to blame previous New Brunswick governments for letting employee wages escalate, even though he had a direct hand in guiding the issue for several years.

As finance minister in the former Progressive Conservative government of David Alward, Higgs was involved in approving wage rates he now complains are too high, even though in real terms they are lower now than where he left them.   

In June 2013, the Alward government signed a four-year deal with hospital workers in CUPE Local 1252, one of the unions involved in the current fight. That deal involved a two-year wage freeze, followed by two years of two-per-cent increases.

The contract expired in June 2015 after the Alward government was defeated, and employee wages have shrunk significantly in real terms since then, due to inflation.  

Local 1252 signed another four-year agreement after 2015 with the former Liberal government of Brian Gallant that included a series of raises totalling 4.1 per cent.