Health-care support worker unions set Oct. 8 strike date

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This article was published 25/09/2024 (346 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More than 4,700 health-care support workers in Westman could go on strike Oct. 8.

Both the Manitoba Government Employees Union and Canadian Union of Public Employees announced the potential strike date at a joint news conference in Winnipeg Tuesday morning.

The employer, Shared Health, said it remains hopeful that an agreement will be reached and a strike avoided, but is “preparing for all contingencies in order to maintain essential health services for Manitobans.”

CUPE Manitoba president Gina McKay said CUPE is also preparing — with “hundreds of strike captains signed up and being trained weekly” in case a strike happens.

“We’ll be ready either way. A strike is a last resort, but we are also 100 per cent committed to getting a fair deal right,” she said.

MGEU president Kyle Ross defended the joint action, saying, “Organized labour should always stand together.”

In a phone interview with the Sun, Ross noted the starting wage for health-care support workers is $17.07.

“We’re asking for a fair increase that is fair for the workers and fair for Manitobans who are not getting the service they expect from health care right now,” he said.

“There are long wait times because we need people to provide those services and we can’t hire them because the wage is no longer competitive.”

McKay said health-care support workers are the backbone of all the health-care facilities in Manitoba.

“I hear from health-care support workers day in and day out, about everything from mileage rates to being overworked and no one to fill shifts,” McKay told the Sun.

“All of these things are so crucial — fair wages and better working conditions. We need to be able to go to work, get home safely and not feel like this isn’t a profession that I can stay in,” she said.

Provincewide, there are more than 25,000 employees in MGEU and CUPE.

MGEU represents roughly 4,700 members in the PMH region as well as support workers in the Interlake-Eastern health region.

The health-care support staff members work at hospitals and personal care homes, as well as the provincial home-care program. They include health-care aides, home-care attendants, dietary aides, housekeeping aides, maintenance workers and clerks.

CUPE represents support staff members in Shared Health, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and Southern Health.

In Westman, there are 43 CUPE personnel in Westman, including clinical engineering in Brandon, as well as Shared Health clerks in diagnostic services across the region, including Russell, Neepawa, Erickson, Shoal Lake, Dauphin, Swan River, Melita, Boissevain and Killarney.

Members of both unions rejected offers made by their employer, Shared Health, in August, and on Aug. 15, MGEU approved a strike mandate.

Citing the “pure bargaining process,” McKay said she can’t speak about what has been offered or requested during negotiations, but added, while touring Manitoba’s health regions, she saw how the low wages and a shortage of staff affected health-care delivery.

“When I spoke to members in the Northern Health Region, they didn’t have anyone to work dialysis that day, and they had no one to sterilize equipment for the hospital because they were so short.

“So, no surgeries could happen, no dialysis could happen,” McKay said.

The Sun reached out to Shared Health for comment about both unions serving strike notice and received an email response from a spokesperson.

Since the spring, the statement said, there have been nearly two dozen bargaining sessions with the employer and the unions and it will “remain committed to bargaining in good faith with CUPE and MGEU.”

Offers were taken to CUPE and MGEU membership during the summer, Shared Health said.

Additional sessions have been offered and dates are in the process of being confirmed, the statement continued.

Ross, who was union president during MGEU’s 10-week strike with Manitoba Public Insurance and the month-long strike by Manitoba Liquor Mart employees last summer, said they’re still trying to schedule bargaining sessions with the province.

“We have nothing solidified yet, but we’re always hopeful that once we’re talking, this can be resolved,” he said.

“But workers are seeing a lot more pressure at home. Their wages can’t keep up. A woman told me during the MPI strike, ‘I can’t afford to go on strike, but I can’t afford not to.’ That’s because of the pressures they’re facing on their finances — wages not keeping up — are insurmountable sometimes.”

The strike deadline that the unions have given the province is 6 a.m. on Oct. 8.

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

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