MGEU head says health-care strike imminent after province offers 'not a penny more'

The head of one of Manitoba's largest unions says job action by 25,000 health-care support workers appears inevitable after the employers on Tuesday tendered what he said is essentially the same contract they already rejected.

"On the path we're going now, I feel like a strike is probably imminent," Kyle Ross, president of the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union (MGEU), said Wednesday morning.

After the last offer was refused in a union vote, the employers asked for more time to put another offer together, he said.

"Then they returned to the table yesterday with everything that our members already rejected. There was not a penny more," he said. "It's a really frustrating situation."

Shared Health, the organization that oversees health-care delivery in the province, said negotiations are ongoing.

"We remain hopeful that an agreement will be reached. We are preparing for all contingencies in order to maintain essential health services for Manitobans," a spokesperson said in an email statement. 

The organization on Tuesday issued a news release advising Manitobans who rely on home care to be prepared for delays and possible cancellations.

"Residents living throughout much of Manitoba, excluding the Northern Health Region, are advised that community health services — particularly home care services — and some clinic appointments could be significantly disrupted," the notice says.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees and MGEU jointly served strike notice last week, giving the mandated 14-day warning.

If a strike goes ahead, it will involve workers in communities south of the 53rd parallel, including Winnipeg, Brandon, Dauphin, Selkirk, Portage la Prairie, Winkler and Steinbach. They include health-care aides, laundry workers, dietary aides, ward clerks, recreation co-ordinators and other health-care support staff in hospitals and personal care homes, as well as those in the home care program.

They are employed by Shared Health, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Prairie Mountain Health, the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority and Southern Health.

Essential services will still be provided but service will be reduced, MGEU has said. A strike would result in a roughly 30 per cent cut in home care services, a 25 to 50 per cent reduction in clerical work and a five to 10 per cent cut in the work of health-care aides, the union has said.

The strike would not include workers employed by the Northern Regional Health Authority, because they voted in favour of a contract offer in late July.

Shared Health began notifying some clients last week that their care plans were being reviewed in order to determine service modifications on a case-by-case basis, the news release from the organization says.

"Service priority will be focused on ensuring clients continue to receive essential services, while some lower priority tasks are offered less frequently or postponed. Clients whose home visits will be postponed or cancelled can expect to be contacted by phone and notified of the change."

Families and caregivers of home care clients are being asked to plan accordingly, to bridge any gaps in services by helping out where possible.

Ross said he is still holding out hope that a deal can be reached before things get to that point, but "unfortunately we're not getting that indication from the employer or the government."

"I think both sides know how how impactful a strike will be on Manitobans," he said. "But the ball is really in the employers' court."

At the moment, there are no dates scheduled for the negotiating teams to return to the table, "but we're open to meeting at any time," Ross said.

'Out of our control'

"For us, the strike is [something] you should make every effort to avoid. It's hard on the workers, it's hard on the people and the services they … provide. It's hard on everyone, so let's do our job and do our due diligence and try to avoid it if we can. But it's really out of our control."

Support workers in Manitoba earn among the lowest wages in health care in the country, with a starting hourly pay of $17.07 in some positions. That makes it difficult to attract additional workers and provide better care, Ross said.

"It's really an unfair situation that they have to fight this hard to just get a fair living wage. We're just asking to make the jobs competitive in the market so we can staff up and people can not have to work double [shifts] or all these amounts of overtime," he said.

"We just want people to have a regular, balanced life, and right now we're not seeing that with these workers."