Fed-up, frustrated, frightened nurses from across province rally at legislature, tell Kinew government to ‘wake up’

Hundreds of pink-clad nurses jammed the steps of the Manitoba legislature Wednesday, carrying signs reading “Wake Up!” and “Same Shift, Different Day” — the ‘f’ in “shift” cheekily crossed out.

Their unified presence sent a clear warning to the provincial government.

“We won’t take it anymore!” they chanted, drawing attention to lengthy wait times, rising violence and overcrowding in emergency rooms.

“Same shift, different day! Nurses can’t live this way!”

Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, said the message couldn’t be clearer.

“We elected an NDP government 18 months ago with many, many promises to fix health care, fix culture… and we hear from our nurses on a daily basis that we are not seeing any appreciable change to health care,” Jackson said. “We’re not seeing improvement, and nurses are frustrated. It’s time for action.”

Nurses from across the province arrived by the busload to show solidarity. Among them was Shelly Nichols, an emergency nurse at Dauphin Regional Health Centre, who said her department is overwhelmed and dangerous.

“There are hundreds of incidents every year that are scary,” she said. “People are getting spat at, sworn at and things thrown at them. It’s violence. And we’re done with it.”

Kimberly Ross, who works at Selkirk Mental Health Centre, said basic respect needs to be shown.

“I also think that when they do provide funding for something, you can’t just cut something else,” she said. “But that always seems to be the solution… it’s basically a vicious cycle. We’re not getting ahead.”

Support came from across the labour movement. Representatives from the Manitoba Teachers’ Society, Amalgamated Transit Union, Canadian Labour Congress and other unions stood with the nurses. Presidents of nursing unions from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario were also on hand.

“With a Progressive Conservative government in our province, we were able to negotiate nurse-to-patient ratios,” said Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union president Janet Hazelton. “Surely an NDP government — a government of the people — should be able to do the same thing.”

Ross, who works in a psychiatric ward, said staffing levels are dangerously low.

“That’s an unacceptable number,” she said of the two nurses overseeing 27 patients in her unit.

As for what a safe ratio looks like?

“That’s the thing,” said Nichols. “It’s different for every unit. Where I work (in emergency), it can be one-to-one if that person is in very critical condition.”

Premier Wab Kinew did not attend the rally, but he couldn’t sidestep a cheeky jab.

“There’s a hole in our Kinew and we’re all getting wet!” one person shouted.

Jackson said increasingly bold protest messaging is a deliberate strategy to break through what she describes as government inaction.

“What we’re finding is the only way we get the government’s attention is by either shaming them or coming out and being edgy and being very pointed,” she said. “If that’s what we need to do to get action… then so be it.”

Jackson said since the election, nurses have been “frozen out” of discussions with the province.

“Trying to get the attention of government is almost impossible,” she said.

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But Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara, who attended Wednesday’s rally and spoke with some nurses after the event, pushed back on that characterization.

“I just met with MNU last Friday,” Asagwara said, noting nurse-to-patient ratios were part of a productive discussion. “We have regular communication with nurses. I talk to nurses, quite frankly, every single day. My door is wide open to talk to nurses and hear their concerns, ideas and hopes for health care.”

Recommendations from MNU are expected within the next year, Asagwara said.

“We’re going to work very quickly to make sure we’re taking real action in moving the nurse-to-patient ratio in the right direction,” the health minister said.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca

Scott Billeck
Reporter

Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.  Read more about Scott.

Every piece of reporting Scott 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.