Strike by 25,000 Manitoba health-care support workers could begin Oct. 8 as unions serve notice

The Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union served up notice Tuesday that 25,000 health-care workers will strike Oct. 8, unless the government dishes out an acceptable contract offer.

CUPE and MGEU members voted against the province’s last proposal in August, “and we have not seen significant movement from the employer since then,” a joint news release said Tuesday morning.

“If we are unable to reach a fair deal at the bargaining table within the next 14 days — which is the mandatory number of days necessary to provide strike notice — strike action will begin on Oct. 8. This is plenty of time to get a deal done if we see a fair deal offered,” CUPE Manitoba president Gina McKay said at a news conference at Union Centre on Broadway.

That deal, however, needs to be one that will help recruit and retain health-care workers, she said.

Staffing shortages are an ongoing problem, and not just for those whose workloads are increasing, McKay said, because the issues inevitably make their way to the bedside and impact the care patients receive.

“A strike is always a last resort, but health care is in a staffing crisis and this crisis demands urgent action,” she said.

If a strike goes ahead, it would involve about 25,000 health-care support workers in communities south of the 53rd parallel, including Winnipeg, Brandon, Dauphin, Selkirk, Portage, Winkler and Steinbach.

The workers include health-care aides, laundry workers, dietary aides, ward clerks, recreation co-ordinators and other health-care support staff who work in hospitals and personal care homes, as well as workers in the home care program.

They are employed by Shared Health, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Prairie Mountain Health, the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority and Southern Health.

Essential services will still be provided should a strike happen, due to provincial law, but other services will be reduced, MGEU president Kyle Ross said, suggesting a job action may result in fewer baths for residents and meals being served with plastic tableware.

“It just means Manitobans won’t be getting the service they expect to receive. Life and limb will be preserved, but overall, you won’t have the other parts of health care,” he said.

Wage increase 1st step in fixing system: union

Angela Bouchard, MGEU’s lead negotiator for support services, said some support workers wouldn’t work during a strike, while others would have reduced hours.

Overall, a strike would result in a roughly 30 per cent cut in home care services, 25 to 50 per cent reduction in clerical work and five to 10 per cent cut in the work of health-care aides, Bouchard said.

Ross said the first step in repairing the cracks in the system is to increase wages.

Support workers in Manitoba have some of the lowest wages in health care in the country, with a starting pay of $17.07 an hour for some positions, and that makes it difficult to recruit anyone, he said.

“Workers can find jobs at Tim’s, McDonald’s or the deli counter at Co-op for far more money and work that is physically and mentally less demanding,” he said.

“Meanwhile, other health-care providers like doctors [and] nurses have seen generous pay benefits at their negotiating tables. We’re not asking for what they receive. We’re asking to close the ever-widening pay gap that has developed between these professions and support staff.”

Unions do not want to head down the strike road, “but there is no health-care system without people who provide health care,” Ross said.

“Addressing the staffing crisis must be job one and can’t happen if these workers are not being recognized appropriately for their contributions. This is about the future of public health care, and we think that’s worth fighting for.”

‘Preparing for all contingencies’: Shared Health

Shared Health said negotiators continue to bargain in “good faith” and new dates are being scheduled. 

The provincial health agency is “hopeful that an agreement will be reached and a strike’s impact to health services avoided,” but is “preparing for all contingencies in order to maintain essential health services,” the statement said.

The strike would not include workers employed by the Northern Regional Health Authority, because they voted in favour of the contract offer reached in late July — a deal that included a northern-specific salary incentive and retention allowance. 

CUPE health-care co-ordinator Shannon McAteer endorsed the province’s offer in the summer. She doesn’t regret that, saying it was a “fair and reasonable deal,” but ultimately, the decision was up to the members.

“We said, whatever the members choose, that’s what we would do. And that’s what we’re here for.”

The unions sent their most recent counter-offer to the employer on Sept. 5 but have not heard back.

WATCH | 25,000 workers could strike:

McAteer wouldn’t provide any specific figures around what is on the table, saying they don’t want to bargain through the media.

“What we can say is we have tabled proposals that is more,” she said. “We heard loud and clear from the members that they want more.”

Adam King, a labour studies professor at the University of Manitoba, said the frustration from the lowest-paid health-care workers is understandable, because their wages haven’t kept up with their colleagues in the sector. 

“In some senses, this is the most difficult challenge for the government,” King said.

He said the NDP administration is trying to mend relationships with public-sector workers while also promising fiscal restraint.

“This is not a government that came in saying that they were going to increase health spending by huge margins,” he said. “Workers may be running up against a government that has commitments that might not necessarily be reconcilable.”