More than 25,000 health-care support workers could strike Oct. 8

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This article was published 24/09/2024 (348 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More than 25,000 health support workers could walk off the job Oct. 8, affecting the lives of thousands of hospital patients, personal-care home residents and people who rely on home-care services.

The employees, who are represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 204 and the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union, include health-care aides, laundry workers, dietary aides, ward clerks, recreation co-ordinators and other support staff.

The unions are negotiating with Shared Health, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Prairie Mountain Health, the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority and Southern Health.

If an agreement isn’t reached before Oct. 8, thousands of staff in Winnipeg, Brandon, Selkirk, Dauphin, Winkler, Steinbach and Portage will hit the picket lines.

“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,” MGEU president Kyle Ross said at a news conference Tuesday morning.

Ross said support staff are looking to “close the ever-widening pay gap” between them and other health-care providers who’ve received pay raises in recent collective bargaining agreements.

MGEU said the starting wage for health-care support workers in Manitoba, $17.07 per hour, is the lowest in the country.

They are considered essential workers, meaning Manitoba law requires them to provide necessary health services. What will change if a strike occurs are non-essential aspects of support and care.

That could mean fewer baths and reduced food services, among other effects.

Angela Bouchard, the lead negotiator for MGEU’s support services staff, said the two unions have agreements with the employers as to which parts of the job are essential.

“Some classifications will be reduced. Home care — we have about a 30 per cent reduction across the board, health-care aides — we might see a five to 10 per cent reduction, clerical staff — anywhere from 25 to 50 per cent reduction,” she said.

Health-care workers represented by MGEU rejected a contract offer last month. The rejected deal included a one per cent wage increase retroactive to April 1 and an 11.25 per cent wage hike spread over the four years of the contract.

Workers represented by CUPE also rejected their offer and voted to strike after the union recommended workers accept the offer.

Shannon McAteer, CUPE’s health-care co-ordinator, said she didn’t regret endorsing the previous offer.

“It was a fair and reasonable deal, but we heard loud and clear that the members want better working conditions, they want better wages, they want to be respected by their employer and the government,” she said.

Since that deal was rejected, Ross said both MGEU and CUPE responded to the employer with an offer on Sept. 5 but have not heard back since.

McAteer did not say what terms either union has put forward now, saying they were not going to “bargain in the media,” but said monetary gains are part of the counter-offer.

In July, nurses avoided a strike after several rounds of bargaining. At the time, the Manitoba Nurses Union was told by Shared Health a mandate meant they could not offer additional monetary benefits.

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When asked if there was concern health-care support workers would be told the same, Ross said both MGEU and CUPE were willing to work with the province.

“Let’s be clear, they haven’t offered us what they’ve offered the nurses. The nurses have been offered more,” he said.

A Shared Health spokesperson said additional bargaining dates are being scheduled now.

“While we remain hopeful that an agreement will be reached and a strike’s impact to health services avoided, essential-service agreements are being finalized and we are preparing for all contingencies in order to maintain essential health services for Manitobans,” he said in an email.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Malak Abas
Reporter

Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.

Every piece of reporting Malak 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.