Labour board ends one-day Dynacare strike

WINNIPEG — The Manitoba Labour Board has cut short a strike by 350 lab workers employed by Dynacare who administer blood and urine tests for patients in Winnipeg, Brandon and surrounding communities.

The board ruled late Tuesday afternoon that the workers, who hit the picket line at 6 a.m., must return to work today.

Jason Linklater, president of their union, the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, slammed the board’s decision.

“The Manitoba Labour Board is doing exactly what the government asked them to do: they are taking away our members’ right to fight for fairness,” he said in a statement.

Labour Minister Malaya Marcelino released a short statement that said the government had a “fundamental responsibility is to ensure the provision of essential health-care services,” which is why it took the issue to the labour board.

Dynacare welcomed the ruling and said business would be conducted as normal at all outlets today.

“Dynacare will be notifying all employees this evening that they are required to return to work effective their next scheduled shift. We recognize this has been a stressful period for our team, and they will have our full support as they return to providing health-care services to Manitobans,” its statement said.

The company said it had “taken every possible step to resolve this dispute.”

Shared Health issued no comment.

The provincial government had asked the board to issue an interim order to halt the strike involving workers at all 22 Dynacare locations over concerns the consequences could be “catastrophic” to people’s health. The order followed a four-hour hearing.

The board decided to send all of the private lab employees back to work until it decides whether Dynacare should have an essential services agreement with its union.

The company’s laboratory technicians and technologists have been without a contract since March 31. The union argues its workers make about 20 to 50 per cent less than workers who perform similar work at public laboratories at hospitals, which are operated by the provincial health authority, Shared Health. The union also represents those workers.

The union is seeking wage parity with public-sector workers, but it said Dynacare was not willing to address that concern last week. The provincial government has funding contracts with Dynacare.

At the labour board hearing, which began just hours after the strike, the lawyer for the province said that, without Dynacare lab services, the consequences to Manitoba’s health-care system could be “catastrophic.”

“Dynacare services are deeply integrated into Manitoba’s health-care system. They’re critical to protecting the health, safety and welfare of Manitoba,” Keith Labossiere told the three-person panel.

“A complete cessation of those services, even temporarily, would have catastrophic consequences for mental health care, system patient care and broader health.”

Even delaying non-urgent tests could put Manitobans’ health at risk, Labossiere said, citing affidavits from health system leaders, including Dr. Jenisa Naidoo, Dynacare’s chief medical and scientific officer.

“Dynacare identifies, on average, approximately 15 critical results every day from tests initially ordered as routine tests,” Labossiere told the labour board panel.

Jake Giesbrecht, lawyer for the union, said Shared Health’s contingency plans, which were posted on its own website, show that the Dynacare strike hasn’t put the health-care system in a “catastrophic” position.

“There are contingencies at Shared Health,” Giesbrecht said.

He paraphrased online posts by the provincial authority, which oversees health-care delivery in the province, that describe contingency plans during the strike: “We can deal with all the tests …You’re just going to have to go to one of the 80-plus locations that are listed on our website to do that,” he said.

“This is not extraordinary,” he said about the strike.

In March, the company and the union had agreed that non-emergent lab tests are not essential, so no essential services agreement would be required in the event of a labour disruption.

Giesbrecht questioned why, now that the Dynacare workers were on strike, the provincial government insists that an essential services agreement should be in place and the employees should be ordered back to work.

The union followed all the rules, he argued, and ordering its members back to work now would be “unfair and unreasonable” and “deprive the union of its ability to do job action.”

The board’s ruling is an interim step until it can review the government’s application in full.

Linklater said the union will follow the board’s interim order and halt the strike for now, but is “exploring our options to address the government’s interference and get our members the respect and equal wages they deserve.”

Negotiations ended last week after Dynacare rejected the union’s counter-proposal and ended conciliation. Dynacare has said its last offer is the most it can sustainably provide, and that the company is open to arbitration.

Linklater said the latest offer was “tantamount to telling us to get lost.”

In Brandon on Tuesday morning, MAHCP treasurer Wayne Chacun was walking the picket line with 10 full-time lab staff outside the Dynacare location on Sixth Street. He said staff were disappointed with the situation.

“(Staff) are frustrated that they’re having to be out here, frustrated with their employer and frustrated with the government for allowing a U.S. health-care company to have a monopoly on delivering health care in Manitoba,” Chacun said.

Picketing workers in Brandon held signs calling out the NDP government for supporting profits over people. One sign questioned why the government would block U.S. alcohol in stores, but allow a U.S. health-care provider to hold a monopoly in the province.

Chacun, who is also the union’s director for District 4, which includes the Prairie Mountain Health southern region medical staff, said Dynacare wages haven’t been on par with provincial laboratory workers since 2017.

He said workers felt Tuesday’s strike was “the way to ensure better wages.”

In response to the strike, Shared Health said it would be extending 12 provincial collection sites to address the uptick in patients seeking provincial lab testing.

Under the plan, Westman Laboratory, located inside the Brandon Regional Health Centre, was to be open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. — or for an additional 44 hours per week — to accommodate the expected increase in demand.

No information on whether the extended hours would remain in place after the Dynacare employees were ordered back to work was available by print deadline.

Linklater, in an interview prior to the labour board decision, said provincial lab workers would be able to staff the additional hours for a short period of time, but the plan wouldn’t be a viable long-term solution.

“On a temporary basis, for most of the emergent work and critical tests that might need to be done, the public system should be able to manage that, but on a long-term, permanent basis, that’s not an option,” he said.

“There needs to be more staff than even what we currently have either in Dynacare and the public system together.”

Linklater criticized the NDP government for its hypocrisy.

“The premier has been explicit about how he feels about standing strong against American companies, ensuring that Manitobans are protected,” he said. “And yet, when it comes to our own workers in this province who are actively being impacted, they’re doing everything they can to stand between these people getting paid properly and protecting an American corporation’s profits.”

» carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca, erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca, rgerrard@brandonsun.com