Strike by 25,000 Manitoba health-care support workers could begin Oct. 8 as unions serve notice

The Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union served up notice Tuesday that 25,000 health-care workers will strike Oct. 8, unless the government dishes out an acceptable contract offer.

CUPE and MGEU members voted against the province's last proposal in August, "and we have not seen significant movement from the employer since then," a joint news release said Tuesday morning.

"If we are unable to reach a fair deal at the bargaining table within the next 14 days — which is the mandatory number of days necessary to provide strike notice — strike action will begin on Oct. 8. This is plenty of time to get a deal done if we see a fair deal offered," CUPE Manitoba president Gina McKay said at a news conference at Union Centre on Broadway.

That deal, however, needs to be one that will help recruit and retain health-care workers, she said.

Staffing shortages are an ongoing problem, and not just for those whose workloads are increasing, McKay said, because the issues inevitably make their way to the bedside and impact the care patients receive.

"A strike is always a last resort, but health care is in a staffing crisis and this crisis demands urgent action," she said.

If a strike goes ahead, it would involve about 25,000 health-care support workers in communities south of the 53rd parallel, including Winnipeg, Brandon, Dauphin, Selkirk, Portage, Winkler and Steinbach.

The workers include health-care aides, laundry workers, dietary aides, ward clerks, recreation co-ordinators and other health-care support staff who work in hospitals and personal care homes, as well as workers 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 should a strike happen, due to provincial law, but other services will be reduced, MGEU president Kyle Ross said, suggesting a job action may result in fewer baths for residents and meals being served with plastic tableware.

"It just means Manitobans won't be getting the service they expect to receive. Life and limb will be preserved, but overall, you won't have the other parts of health care," he said.

Angela Bouchard, MGEU's lead negotiator for support services, said some support workers wouldn't work during a strike, while others would have reduced hours.

Overall, a strike would result in a roughly 30 per cent cut in home care services, 25 to 50 per cent reduction in clerical work and five to 10 per cent cut in the work of health-care aides, Bouchard said.

Ross said the first step in repairing the cracks in the system is to increase wages.