City blames UFFW anger on a ‘misunderstanding’

The president of United Firefighters of Winnipeg is upset about something the city says is a misunderstanding.

Alex Forrest says one of his members was told to train in the 911 dispatch centre, which he implied is in preparation for a possible CUPE local 500 strike.

“We feel that it’s extremely in bad taste that one of our members would be brought in to CUPE communications, and would be trained as a signal to them that they can be replaced by firefighters.”

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But city COO Michael Jack says that training was part of normal contingency training for the call centre.

CUPE Local 500, which represents more than 5,000 city workers, has been without a contract since December. They are voting on what they say is the final offer from the city June 7, but Jack says that is misleading.

“The city never characterized it as such. It is our most recent offer. CUPE decided they were taking that offer to their membership. I’m hopeful that, once they have reviewed it, that they are going to agree that it’s reasonable and fair.”