Updates
Justice for Janitors @ UofW
Latest Updates
October 1, 2025
On Saturday September 13, the contracted janitors at the University of Winnipeg voted unanimously to strike. The workers would have been in a legal strike position by September 19, but Dexterra has employed the use of delay tactics.
On Monday September 15, Dexterra filed an application at the Manitoba Labour Relations board to extend the freeze provision in what SEIU believes is an attempt to further delay a reaching a fair deal – that extension was granted.
The Union had been prepared to meet with the company during both the second and third weeks of September to reach a fair deal and prevent a strike. Rather than meeting to negotiate, the company said it would be filing for conciliation but instead filed for the extension. After we called out Dexterra publicly on September 16, the company finally filed for conciliation on September 17. A meeting is scheduled for October 6.
The extension prevents workers from being in a legal strike position until the winter months – something the Union believes is no coincidence.
September 12, 2025
Dexterra Group’s management didn’t respond well to the workers’ unionizing drive. In the course of organizing many of the cleaners reported numerous violations of the Manitoba employment standards code by Dexterra.
According to a legal complaint filed at the Manitoba Labour Relations Board, there was a campaign of intimidation, surveillance, coercion and threats to workers by the cleaning company.
By early September the Union’s bargaining committee had concluded five days of bargaining with the University’s cleaning contractor, but remained far apart on some key issues like wages.
The cleaners are the lowest paid workers on campus. Dexterra has been unwilling to agree to meaningful wage increases, has failed to agree to basic language around job security and fair workloads, and has refused to agree to provisions that Dexterra cleaners have secured in Collective Bargaining Agreements elsewhere in Canada.
As a community we should expect better for workers cleaning at a prestigious institution in our city like the University of Winnipeg.