The unions representing Manitoba health-care support workers say they’re nowhere near reaching a deal, before they are set to strike this coming week.
More than 25,000 workers, represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 204 and the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union, have set a strike date of Oct. 8.
In a statement Sunday afternoon, CUPE Manitoba president Gina McKay and MGEU president Kyle Ross said bargaining isn’t going well.
“We have been bargaining all weekend with the assistance of a conciliator in the hopes of reaching a fair settlement and averting a strike,” the joint statement said. “Unfortunately, bargaining is not going well. We remain far from an agreement, but we will continue to bargain.”
The unions are negotiating with Shared Health, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Prairie Mountain Health, the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority and Southern Health.
Last week, Shared Health sent out a notice to home care clients warning them that planned job action by CUPE and MGEU union members could see community health services, including home care, “significantly disrupted.”
In an email exchange obtained by the Free Press in the days leading up to a possible strike, a health-care worker asked for advice from their union because they had been asked to train “non-union secretaries” to do their job at a Winnipeg hospital if workers walked off.
A CUPE spokesman noted there is an essential services agreement in place to allow the health-care system to continue safely functioning during a strike, but there are still limits to who can do the work.
“Our essential services agreements prevent the expansion of contractors or work being done outside the bargaining unit,” Alex McClurg, CUPE’s health-care coordinator, said last week. “We will fully enforce those rules to the full extent of the law.”
fpcity@freepress.mb.ca