LPN wage among hot topics at AGM

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/04/2016 (3774 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Whether the discussion revolved around health on northern reserves or bringing in a provincewide uniform, members of the Manitoba Nurses Union showed passion this week.

Nurses from across Manitoba came to the Keystone Centre Tuesday and Wednesday for the MNU’s 41st annual general meeting. More than 450 delegates discussed things such as bringing clean water to northern communities, one uniform scrub colour for nurses across the province and contracts.

MNU president Sandi Mowat said the union’s contract with the province expires March 2017. That means bargaining and bringing issues like mental health care to the table.

“Mostly, we talk about workload and safe patient care,” she said. “We also talk about mental health in the workplace. It’s become apparent nurses are exposed to mental health issues, predisposed to compassion fatigue.

“What we’ve found now is that we need to have more support in the workplace to deal with it, so we’ll lobby for that as well.”

The bargaining would have happened regardless, but now that the Manitoba Progressive Conservative party is in power, the conversation might be a bit different. Premier-designate Brian Pallister has stated he’s not ruling out privatizing health care, which would bring lots of changes to the MNU.

“We’re likely in for some turbulent times, but together we’re strong,” said Cindy Murdoch, Manitoba regional representative from the Canadian Labour Congress. “And strong works.”

Another issue members discussed was raising the wage that licensed practical nurses receive in Manitoba. Right now, Mowat said the difference between a registered nurse’s wage and a licensed practical nurse’s wage is around 26 per cent.

The argument is LPNs are getting more training and are able to do more, so they should be earning more, too.

“(An LPN’s) scope of practice has increased quite a bit and we’ve lobbied lots to get them back into acute care facilities,” Mowat said. “They feel the difference in wage between RNs and LPNs is too wide. There wasn’t really a debate, it was all mostly supportive. We as nurses value the work we all do.”

Once the business was over, certain members of the MNU were given the Yellow Ribbon Award, a recognition of grassroots advocacy in hospitals throughout the province.

One of those members was Renate McGowan, a RN from Bethesda Regional Care Facility in Steinbach. Many nurses at that hospital were leaving due to poor management, she said. McGowan, however, decided the nurses were stronger as a group, and inspired many staff members to stay.

“We all kind of made a pact that we’d stick it out,” McGowan said. “We were losing a lot of nurses and we just pulled together and said let’s do this together. I did what everybody wanted, I was just their voice.”

The nurses who won the Yellow Ribbon Awards were given standing ovations from the crowd. But whether the colour in question is yellow or blue, Mowat said nurses work hard for patient care.

“I’m optimistic we’ll be able to work together,” Mowat said of the new government. “At the end of the day, we have the same goals. I’m hopeful the government of Manitoba will want to advocate for healthy Manitobans and that’s what nurses always want to do.”

» ssamson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @samanthassamson