Arbitrator opens hearings on Manitoba Nurses Union grievance over safety in, around HSC

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This article was published 29/01/2024 (629 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An arbitration hearing to settle a grievance between Shared Health and the union representing Manitoba nurses began Monday morning — the latest development in an ongoing dispute over safety on the Health Sciences Centre campus.

The first of at least three scheduled meetings kicked off with witness testimony from a pair of health-care workers who said they frequently face violence, verbal abuse, theft and exposure to noxious drug-related fumes and paraphernalia.

“It’s the worst its ever been. You just don’t trust people outside anymore,” said one witness, an allied health-care worker who sits on a campus safety committee.

“I see drugs, either in use or past use… pretty much every day.”

The Manitoba Nurses Union filed the grievance in November in response to safety concerns involving the parkades and surface parking lots surrounding Manitoba’s largest hospital.

Myers LLP lawyers Shannon Carson and Jeff Smorang are representing the union and advocating for an increased security presence, safety infrastructure upgrades and clear timelines on when such initiatives will be implemented.

The union previously said its members have been vocal about the safety and cleanliness of parkades for a “very long time,” but those complaints have gone largely unaddressed, and health-care workers feel unheard.

“It has been very frustrating knowing the employer has failed to live up to its previous commitments and its safety obligations. Vague assurances and a lack of firm action has compelled us to move in this direction,” the MNU said Monday when asked for comment on the arbitration process.

“It is imperative that if we are to retain the nurses we have in our public system, we create a workplace that is inclusive, rooted in respect and, especially, safe. It is our hope that this arbitration is the first step in that direction.”

The Free Press has previously spoken to nurses who have detailed accounts of abuse and fear brought on by people loitering and using drugs around the hospital.

Before filing the grievance, MNU called for its members to submit statements expressing their personal experiences and concerns. Dozens of people stepped forward, the union said.

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After the grievance was filed, Shared Health pointed to several efforts to improve safety, including increasing security patrols, adding additional lighting, enhancing video surveillance and discouraging people from loitering in stairwells.

Lawyer Scott Tallon, who is representing the health authority, referenced some of those efforts during a cross-examination of the health-care workers who testified.

Arbitrator Kristin Gibson is tasked with overseeing the hearing and issuing a ruling on the grievance, which is slated to continue until at least Feb. 7.

Several more witnesses are expected to testify Friday.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.