Health care workers edge toward job action

SASKATOON A union representing more than 12,000 health care workers in Saskatchewan says members are prepared for job action unless they get a better offer at the bargaining table.

In a letter sent Thursday to Premier Scott Moe and three ministers, SEIU-WEST president Barbara Cape said the union “is prepared to do all in our legislated power to allow our members to exercise their constitutional right to take job action” unless conditions improve.

Cape said the letter is the culmination of protracted collective bargaining that has gone on for more than three years and the increased workloads employees face during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Further, if you have any desire for labour stability in the future, there must be accountability for those who have made the decisions that have brought us to this bleak place,” Cape wrote.

SEIU-WEST has been without a collective agreement since March 2017, when the provincial government proposed a 3.5 per cent public sector cut in an effort to halve a $1.2 billion deficit.

Unions reached a tentative agreement in February 2019 that included no retroactive wage increases for two years, but SEIUWEST members voted to reject it. SEIU-WEST members voted in late 2019 to authorize job action, although the union has thus far not taken such steps.

Cape said the union proposed its own package during its last sitting with the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO), which represents health care employers in such negotiations, on May 22 via video conference. That package included a request for a one-time $400 lump sum pay increase for all the union’s members, as well as expanded benefits, but the union agreed to the government’s terms on pay, she said.

The talks ended suddenly when SAHO “did the video conferencing equivalent of slamming the door,” Cape added. “They clicked the ‘end’ button.”

Cape said any labour actions taken will abide by Saskatchewan laws and will not disrupt essential health services.

In a prepared statement provided to Postmedia, government spokeswoman Paula Steckler said the province is confident there will be a deal but that it would be “inappropriate” for ministers or the premier to weigh in.

Health Minister Jim Reiter expressed hope that job action could be avoided.

“The possibility of job action during this pandemic is concerning,” Reiter said in a prepared statement. “I would encourage both parties to return to the bargaining table so we can continue providing the high level of care Saskatchewan residents have always received.”

Cape said the parties have not met since and she is unsure when talks will resume.

On Thursday, Moe announced that workers in long-term care homes are eligible for a monthly $400 wage top-up program that runs until July 4, part of an effort to recognize essential workers during the pandemic.

Reiter and SHA CEO Scott Livingstone said earlier this week that the province’s long-term care system is in better shape than other provinces like Ontario and Quebec, which have seen devastating and deadly COVID-19 outbreaks in those settings.

However, operators of homes have said increasingly complex health needs among residents are contributing to a shortage of staff, a problem which was also identified in a recent 251-page government report.

On Friday, Opposition Leader Ryan Meili argued it was a sign of underinvestment in health care in the province.

“It’s extremely incredible that a government could push workers to the point of considering this in such a moment,” Meili said.