Unionized workers at Manitoba Public Insurance have voted to accept a new four-year contract with the Crown corporation, ending a strike that lasted more than two months.
The new contract will provide workers with wage increases of at least 13 per cent over four years, a Wednesday night news release from the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union said.
“I think they cleared the tunnel and now I feel it’s more like they probably have a mountain to climb though,” MGEU president Kyle Ross said later in an interview with CBC. “There’s such a backlog of work, they’re going to be very busy for quite a while.”
The agreement also includes a one-time lump sum signing bonus of $1,800 for full-time employees, which would be pro-rated for part-time employees, according to MGEU.
The workers, who have been on strike since Aug. 28, will also receive two weeks’ pay to recognize the stalled negotiations between the Oct. 3 provincial election and the new government being sworn in.
MPI added in a news release Wednesday that all service and claim centres across the province, including the physical damage centre and contact centre, will reopen at 1 p.m. Friday and remain open until 4:30 p.m.
The release added appointments scheduled for 1 p.m. and beyond will continue and those who have had appointments cancelled will be contacted to reschedule.
Unionized workers at Manitoba Public Insurance had been on strike since Aug. 28. (Travis Golby/CBC)
“I would say there’s some concerns that they’re going to face a lot of angry Manitobans when they get back to work and they open those shops,” said Ross. “I’m hopeful Manitobans will recognize that they were fighting … to be treated fairly.”
MGEU announced Tuesday night it had reached a tentative agreement with the public insurer, one day after rejecting an offer from the Crown corporation that included wage increases 12.2 per cent over four years.
The agreement will see a three per cent increase for 2022 and 2023. Workers will receive a 2.9 per cent general increase with an additional 0.5 per cent retention adjustment increase in 2024 and a 2.8 per cent general increase and a 0.5 per cent retention adjustment increase in 2025, the MGEU release Wednesday said.
“Those are good wage increases for folks who deserve it,” said Justice Minister Matt Wiebe, who is also the minister responsible for MPI during a news conference Wednesday. “I especially want to thank the workers who spent weeks on the picket line, demonstrating for their right to a fair deal.”
New maximum step for each pay grade
Additionally, most workers will receive an additional 3.5 per cent wage increase over the life of the agreement from a new maximum increment step for each pay grade, the MGEU release said.
Ross explained the extra step would expand the six-step pay scale MPI employees go through as their tenure increases. Currently, an employee at the sixth step of the salary scale would be “topped out,” he said.
MPI previously presented what it called its final offer back in September. Under provincial labour law, both sides could have applied for binding arbitration starting Oct. 27 — 60 days after the beginning of labour action — to resolve the dispute.
However, the two sides continued negotiating, after the new NDP government replaced most of MPI’s board of directors and issued a mandate to the Crown corporation to resolve the labour dispute without binding arbitration.
“I have a lot of confidence in the board that’s been put in place at MPI and there is a lot of work that remains to be done at MPI, so obviously the strike was our first priority, ending the strike and getting folks back to work,” said Wiebe. “But now, I think there’s a lot of work that [needs] to be done to make sure MPI’s delivering the services and is again, being responsible and respectful of the ratepayers in Manitoba.”
Wiebe added the new agreement “really sets the tone” that the NDP are “ready to work with the working people of Manitoba to get fair deals, to make sure they feel included.”
“It’s been an antagonistic relationship between the previous government and workers, we want to tell workers now that we’re willing to sit down with them, make sure that they get fair wages,” he said.
The new collective agreement covers the period from Sept. 27, 2022 through to Sept. 26, 2026, MGEU said in its release.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
