Unions band together in face of single health body

Saskatchewan’s government introduced a law on Tuesday that will roll its 12 health regions into a single authority. Meanwhile, unions representing health-care workers were presenting their own proposals on how the province can lessen the impact that transition will have on patients.

The new law comes as no surprise, as the decision was made months ago. Health Minister Jim Reiter says a single health authority will remove arbitrary geographical areas of responsibility and ensure community needs are advanced. He said the new legislation will also allow the government to control compensation levels of those employed by the new health authority.

“While it’s important, I think, to remunerate appropriately so you get top-quality people, it’s also important that people understand these are tax dollars that we’re spending and we want to be careful how much we spend,” he said.

Three different unions came forward Tuesday with a call for a formal bargaining council structure to be put in place, “to help stabilize labour relations and negotiate with the new authority.”

Basically, SEIU-West, CUPE and SGEU are proposing they come to the bargaining table together.

“We’re going to work together to make sure our members are going to be represented by the unions that currently represent them,” said Gordon Campbell, president of the CUPE health care council.

Multi-union bargaining councils exist in other provinces. British Columbia and Nova Scotia operate under a similar structure.

All three unions are entering into a new round of negotiations, as their current contracts expire at month’s end. The unions charge that there are still questions remaining about health-care funding in light of last week’s provincial budget.

SEIU-West president Barbara Cape said the three unions bargaining together will create efficiencies in terms of time and monetary resources. She also dismissed the idea the three unions — with more than 18,000 members between them — are posturing for any potential job action.

“We have to move beyond the notion of job action and strike clout. I think what the people behind us and our members are talking about is that we’re trying to participate in transformational change that benefits our patients, clients and residents,” she said.

Campbell said “certainly our members have great angst about where their jobs will lie in the future” and he hopes negotiating with two other unions can help alleviate some of that anxiety.

Reiter said the legislation “makes no changes as far as the unions are concerned” and that there is “no legislation changing sort of the current provisions” regarding unions. He said it would be premature to agree to meet with all three unions at once, but hinted there will be major announcements — likely who will sit on the new health board and who will be named CEO — coming soon.