Shared Health, Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals reach tentative agreement on new contract

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This article was published 24/06/2023 (854 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Shared Health and the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals have reached a tentative agreement amid protracted threats of strike action.

“We have finally reached a tentative agreement after 15 months of painstaking negotiations, including over nine weeks of mediation. We are hopeful that, if ratified, this new deal can help retain and recruit more specialized allied health care professionals on the front line where Manitobans need them,” union president Jason Linklater said in a release.

The union represents 44 specialized professions, including paramedics and emergency dispatchers, diagnostic imaging and laboratory technologists, mental health and addictions counsellors, and respiratory therapists.

Roughly 6,500 regional health employees are involved with the union. Recruitment and retention were critical issues for the group, who have been pushing for higher wages, better work-life balance and education.

The release did not include details of the impending deal.

A strike vote held April 14 logged 99.3 per cent support, and members gathered outside the Manitoba legislature last month, demanding aid from provincial officials who refused to intervene. The union set a June 15 strike deadline as negotiations staggered on, but later extended it indefinitely.

If ratified, this new deal will bring an end to the dispute.

“Our members have waited more than five years for a new contract, the longest of any health-care sector in Canada,” Linklater said, adding the union is pleased with reaching the tentative agreement.

Members are currently voting on the terms, and the results will be announced “shortly,” the union said.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca