Shared Health nurses have voted in favour of a new collective agreement.
A little more than 77 per cent of voters agreed to ratify the four-year contract Monday morning, said Manitoba Nurses Union Darlene Jackson.
“Now the work begins to keep pushing for and fighting for things that nurses need to see in the facilities,” Jackson said Monday afternoon. “They need to see safer workplaces, they need to see a decrease in their workload.”
RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS file Manitoba Nurses Union President Darlene Jackson: A little more than 77 per cent of voters agreed to ratify the four-year contract Monday morning.
The 4,100 nurses, many of whom work at Health Sciences Centre, received an updated contract proposal after rejecting a previous offer in May.
They were the only holdouts among nurses in six Manitoba health regions, voting 57 per cent in favour of rejecting that proposed deal. The other contracts were accepted by primarily narrow margins.
The initial proposal included a full-time incentive that would boost pay for full-time nurses and part-time nurses who work the equivalent of full-time hours by about $6 an hour. The updated proposal extends that incentive to part-time nurses who don’t work full-time hours and is renamed a “salary enhancement.”
Jackson said the rejection in May came from a displeasure in the way the proposed contract failed to address safety concerns at HSC.
“Nurses are not dispensable and are not easily replaceable. It’s just about bringing some respect and value to the profession again,” Jackson said.
Other changes to the proposal include updated wording to deal with workplace safety and nurse-to-patient ratios.
The new contract will establish a committee to look into how many patients one nurse can reasonably be expected to care for at one time.
According to the deal, the committee must be formed within 60 days of ratification with recommendations submitted by Jan. 1, 2026, with key focus areas determined by the start of next year.
nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca
Nicole Buffie
Multimedia producer
Nicole Buffie is a multimedia producer who reports for the Free Press city desk. Born and bred in Winnipeg, Nicole graduated from Red River College’s Creative Communications program in 2020 and worked as a reporter throughout Manitoba before joining the Free Press newsroom in 2023. Read more about Nicole.
Every piece of reporting Nicole 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.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.