Manitoba Nurses Union reaches tentative collective agreement after 7 weeks of mediation
Annual wage increases add up to 9.6% before compounding, MNU tells members
The Manitoba Nurses Union says it has reached a tentative agreement for its more than 12,000 members across the province following seven weeks of mediation.
The update comes after 4½ years without a collective agreement, the union said in a news release Wednesday afternoon. In a letter to members, the MNU said the proposed contract lasts seven years, ending in 2024, and the general wage increases will "total 9.6 per cent before compounding."
The contract, which still needs to be ratified by nurses, also includes improvements to shift premiums, overtime and other allowances, incentives for travel and transfers, and protections against "inordinately long durations of work and duration of standby."
It also includes incentives for nurses accepting full-time positions, signing bonuses and more investment in nursing recruitment and retention.
Members-only webinars are scheduled for the coming days to provide information about the new collective agreement.
Nurses will then be able to vote online on whether to ratify the proposed agreement, though no details were provided about when that's happening.
Union president Darlene Jackson won't comment on the news until after the results of that ratification vote are made public, because of "the sensitive nature of this process and out of respect for every member's autonomy in the upcoming vote," the release said.
In June, the union's members voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action if negotiations broke down.
A few weeks after that, the union said it had reached an agreement with the province that would instead send the matter to binding arbitration without strike action if bargaining wasn't successful.