NAPE walks away from negotiations with N.L. government over plan to privatize ambulance services

The Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees walked away from the bargaining table Tuesday to protest the provincial government's plan to privatize the province's air ambulance service.

NAPE says the 29 pilots, technicians and maintenance workers it represents will continue providing services but the union has delayed negotiations that were scheduled to begin Tuesday.

"The government has left us with no choice on this matter," NAPE president Jerry Earle told reporters.

"How does the government expect us, expect this negotiating team in good conscience, to go back to the table and negotiate an agreement while almost one-third of the bargaining is threatened to be laid off?"

Talks between the government and the union are now postponed until at least Thursday.

Earle said the union is giving the government a chance to reverse its move to privatize air ambulance services.

Osborne guaranteeing jobs

Health Minister Tom Osborne announced last week that the province is moving toward a common ambulance service.

He said a request for proposals is being issued for a proponent that will manage and operate an integrated road and air ambulance service for the province.

The current road and air ambulance services are fragmented and leading to inefficiencies, Osborne said, and integrating the services is a key recommendation of the Health Accord N.L. task force.

WATCH | NAPE president blasts the government announcement it's looking for a new private operator for air ambulance

NAPE refuses to bargain after N.L. government looks for operator of air ambulance service

12 months ago

Duration 0:46

NAPE president Jerry Earle says the union is considering a complaint with the labour relations board, on behalf of 70 members of a bargaining unit that represents air ambulance dispatchers, engineers, mechanics and pilots. The Newfoundland and Labrador government issued a request for proposals to integrate air and road ambulance services. While the government said it anticipates that all ambulance staff will be offered jobs, all aviation services related to medivac will contracted through the new entity. The 70 members in NAPE’s bargaining unit that represent have been without a contract since March 2022.

NAPE's secretary treasurer, Trevor King, who is also acting as the lead negotiator for this round of bargaining, said many union members have been hit hard by news of the government's plans. 

"They recruited two pilots only three or four weeks ago. Someone that uprooted from the mainland to move back home to Newfoundland and Labrador to make their home again with their family, with young families, they recruited them," he said.

"And now to get this punch in the guts."

On Tuesday, Osborne told reporters it's written into the request for proposals that NAPE workers — like pilots — will still have work.

"They are guaranteed a job, you know, either within the public service or with the proponent," he said.

"We will do the best we can to keep them within the public service bearing that the proponent must offer them a job."

He said he is interested in speaking with NAPE and looking at the best way to make air ambulance services more efficient.

When asked whether the provincial government would reverse its decision to privatize air ambulance services, Osborne said it's open to making amendments to the request for proposals but it cannot continue to allow a fragmented and inefficient ambulance service to exist in the province.

The bidding period for the request for proposals closes at the end of January.

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