On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, the injunction request filed by the Partnership to Defend Public Services against the Pallister government’s wage freeze legislation (The Public Services Sustainability Act) was heard in court. 

PDPS lawyers Garth Smorang and Shannon Carson of Myers LLP made the case that the legislation is causing irreparable harm to the bargaining process in Manitoba’s public sector, and that an injunction should be granted against the Act to allow free and fair collective bargaining to occur until the full Constitutional challenge of the legislation is heard and decided.

Manitoba’s labour movement was well represented in the courtroom. As the Winnipeg Free Press reported, “the courtroom was packed with union leaders.”

The PDPS has put forward its best arguments on behalf of Manitoba’s dedicated public sector workers, and we await the judge’s decision, expected sometime this summer. Court dates for hearing the PDPS’s full Constitutional challenge have not yet been set.