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

Posted on September 24, 2024 by Peggy

The Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union served up notice 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 the 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.

A person speaks at a podium with microphones — CUPE Manitoba president Gina McKay says any deal must address recruitment and retention of workers. (Ian Froese/CBC)

If a strike goes ahead, it would involved 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 continue to be provided should a strike happen, but services will be reduced, MGEU president Kyle Ross said, but he didn’t elaborate on what that would look like.

“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.

Close up image of a nurse pushing an elderly person in a wheelchair. — The workers are 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. (Lighthunter/Shutterstock)

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

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, 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.”

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 — the same one the others rejected.

CUPE health-care co-ordinator Shannon McAteer endorsed that offer at the time and 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.

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

However, she repeated the need for recruitment and retention and said the way to do that is by providing better wages and working conditions.