Eastern Health nurses back strike mandate

Nurses at the largest health board in Newfoundland and Labrador have given solid backing to a strike mandate to press contract demands with the Treasury Board, their union says.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Nurses' Union said 90.7 per cent of nurses at Eastern Health who have cast ballots so far approved a strike mandate.

The union is midway through a six-week voting period on whether or not to serve the Newfoundland and Labrador government and its regional health boards with a strike notice.

"Nurses in Eastern Health have sent a very strong message that we need serious recruitment and retention measures and a fair collective agreement if we are to address the nursing shortage in this province," union president Debbie Forward said in a statement.

The nurses union has been locked in a stalemate for months with the provincial government over contract talks. The governing Progressive Conservatives have struck pacts with most other public-sector unions with a pattern bargaining approach, with unionized workers receiving wage increases worth about 21.5 per cent over four years.

The NLNU, which had been seeking an increase of more than 24 per cent in two years, has since softened its wage demands, indicating it would accept 16 per cent over two years. The union has insisted such a raise is necessary to keep nurses in the province, and to help recruit new ones.

However, the union has refused to engage in formal bargaining until the strike vote concludes in March.