Manitoba’s labour board to hear government request on essential status for lab staff

WINNIPEG – The Manitoba Labour Board is scheduled to hear a request next week that medical laboratory staff be deemed essential workers — the same day they’re set to go on strike.

Labour Minister Malaya Marcelino filed an application to the board earlier this week, asking it to issue an interim order that the 350 employees remain on the job at Dynacare locations across the province.

“In the event of a strike, the cessation of Dynacare’s collection and testing services would have a catastrophic impact on Manitoba’s health-care system,” the application said. 

The labour board said the hearing is set for Tuesday. That is the same day the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals has told the company it will be going on strike.

The association represents lab workers at the privately owned and operated Dynacare. The union has been pushing for a wage increase to address what it estimates is a 20 to 50 per cent gap with public-sector lab workers.

Bozena Turczynowicz, a recently retired lab worker, said she has seen colleagues leave Dynacare to work in the public health-care system, where employees are paid more. 

“The structures are crumbling from within. We are permanently short-staffed every day. Some of our stations, they service up to 600 patients a day,” Turczynowicz said at a rally Wednesday. 

Staff have been without a collective agreement since March 31. That same month, the union and Dynacare agreed an essential services agreement wasn’t necessary.

Marcelino was not made available for an interview Wednesday. But in a statement, she encouraged Dynacare to return to the bargaining table given its critical role in the system.  

The health-care union, meanwhile, said it is “truly dismaying” for the government to get involved.

“This conversation needs to return back to these people who are being exploited by a private company … that is 100 per cent funded by the government of Manitoba, that is not paying wages that are fair or commensurate with the public sector,” said Jason Linklater, the union’s president. 

Dynacare is the exclusive provider of community-based medical laboratory testing in the province. The for-profit company is based in Ontario but owned by an American parent company and has been providing services in Manitoba since 2017. 

It is the primary collector of routine lab work, including blood samples, urinalysis and prenatal testing. Workers also administer testing that is essential for diagnoses and treatment of various diseases and public-health surveillance. 

Should the strike go ahead, patients will have to rely on hospitals for their lab work. But Shared Health, the body that oversees Manitoba health, says that will have a negative impact given that the system is already at full capacity.

“(Shared Health) cannot accommodate patient backlog arising from a Dynacare work stoppage without posing additional safety risks,” the agency said. 

Dynacare, in a statement, said it worked to avoid labour disruption, and supports the government’s choice to seek an essential services agreement. 

“Our employees are the reason 1.2 million Manitobans can access community laboratory services,” the statement said.

“We will participate in the Labour Board process to support our shared interest ensuring patients have continuous access to laboratory services.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 2, 2026.