Strike looms closer as union for healthcare support workers, province fail to reach deal

Bargaining for healthcare support workers in Manitoba may be at a stalemate, with just a week to go until roughly 25,000 healthcare support workers could walk off the job, leading to health organizations starting to prepare for the potential disruptions.

If a deal is not met, healthcare aids, laundry workers, dietary aides, ward clerks, recreation coordinators and other support staff could all strike on October 8^th, which both CUPE and MGEU were hopeful to avoid, until the Province came back with the same offer on Tuesday, which was previously denied.

“We were hopeful they would come back with something we could take to our members, but instead they came back with the same offer, not a penny more, so it’s frustrating to give someone that time we thought in good faith and they turn around and bring back the same offer it’s really an unfair situation,” explained Kyle Ross, the president of MGEU.

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CUPE says while there is an essential-services agreement in place to continue health services, in the event of a strike, staff levels would be reduced by roughly 30 per cent.

“There isn’t a waitlist or a patient or home care client that can do with a third less of health care services or any Manitoba starting October 8th,” said Lee McLeod, the regional director of CUPE Manitoba.

While Minister of Health, Seniors and Long-Term Care Uzoma Asagwara would not confirm if they will budge on their current offer, they will continue to negotiate

“We value and respect healthcare workers across this province, we want to make sure they can exercise their freedoms of being able to negotiate at the bargaining table and we will remain at the table with healthcare workers to ensure we get a fair deal done,” said Asagwara.

With the looming strike, healthcare organizations across Manitoba are starting to prepare for the potential effects, including the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.

“What we’re focusing on right now is to make sure we can keep delivering the services they need so they can continue on in their day to day lives should we enter a strike on Tuesday,” said Luba Bereza, the director of Health Services, Home and Palliative Care at the WRHA.