NDP accused of meddling in Dynacare contract talks

WINNIPEG — The union for hundreds of Dynacare lab employees in Manitoba has accused the provincial government of interfering in contract talks ahead of next week’s strike deadline.

The Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, which bargains on behalf of 350 lab workers at two dozen Dynacare outlets in Winnipeg, Brandon and surrounding communities, said Tuesday that the labour board has been asked to review the need for an essential services agreement.

Dynacare and the union agreed in March that Dynacare services are not deemed essential under provincial law and do not need to continue if a strike is held, MAHCP president Jason Linklater said Tuesday. The union, whose collective agreement with the private company expired March 31, said the NDP government was informed the two sides had agreed no essential services agreement was needed.

After contract negotiations broke down, and a strike deadline of 6 a.m. Sept. 8 was set, physicians and health-care advocates warned that patient care will suffer if the strike goes ahead because Dynacare provides nearly all medical lab services in Manitoba.

The province’s request for a labour board review now — a week ahead of the pending strike — is nothing short of a betrayal, as it removes pressure on Dynacare to bargain in good faith, Linklater said.

“Government dropped this on us today and, quite frankly, we’re in disbelief that they chose to take this path,” Linklater said.

Labour Minister Malaya Marcelino’s application to the labour board says that an essential services agreement is needed “to prevent a threat to the health, safety or welfare of residents of Manitoba.”

Marcelino was not made available late Tuesday to explain why the province is getting involved now.

A prepared statement issued on her behalf said that Dynacare is the province’s provider for outpatient lab diagnostics. “The Manitoba government’s fundamental responsibility is to ensure the provision of essential health-care services. This is why we have asked the independent labour board to review this matter. We encourage Dynacare to return to the bargaining table.”

The application to the labour board includes affidavits from doctors saying that a Dynacare strike could have a negative impact on the health of Manitobans. Chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said that community-based laboratory testing is a key entry point to Manitoba’s public health system. “A disruption in community-based testing, even briefly, can have a significant negative impact on Manitoba’s public health testing and response system.”

An affidavit from Dynacare’s chief medical and scientific officer, Dr. Jenisa Naidoo, said “hospital-based testing is not able to absorb outpatient testing ordinarily performed by Dynacare in the event of a strike.”

Her affidavit described the tens of thousand of tests performed daily at Dynacare’s laboratory on King Edward Street in Winnipeg. The tests support the detection and management of a variety of medical conditions, including kidney disease, diabetes, infection, sepsis, leukemia, anemia, bleeding disorders, thyroid and liver disease, cardiovascular risk and cancer, it said.

Shared Health’s chief operating officer for diagnostics, Dr. Abdulrazaq Sokoro, said in his affidavit that hospital-based lab testing facilities operated by Shared Health operate at 100 per cent capacity.

“In the event of a work stoppage, Shared Health hospital-based testing facilities cannot accommodate outpatients who would otherwise have utilized Dynacare’s services,” Sokoro said.

The union said it’s unlikely the company will return to the bargaining table following the minister’s move. It says Dynacare’s final offer, submitted Friday, fails to close the 20 to 50 per cent wage gap with public-sector lab workers. Conciliation ended once Dynacare rejected the union’s counter proposal.

“These severely underpaid laboratory technicians and technologists thought the Manitoba government had their backs,” Linklater said in a press release. “Instead, the NDP is siding with a private, American-owned company over the rights and interests of Manitoba workers by interfering in bargaining and threatening their Charter-protected right to strike.”

The union asked why the government is stepping in at this late stage when Dynacare agreed long ago that their services did not meet the criteria of essential services. It says the government has a contract with Dynacare, and wants to know why service continuity and fair wages for laboratory professionals weren’t addressed in it.

The labour board hasn’t released dates for the government-ordered review, the union said.

Unions members will hold an information picket outside Dynacare’s main processing lab on King Edward Street on Wednesday.

» Winnipeg Free Press, with files from Morgan Modjeski