HEALTH CARE BARGAINING UPDATE #12, February 2, 2022
February 03, 2022 at 1:56 PM
The CUPE bargaining team continues to push the Government and Employers to prioritize support staff bargaining.
CUPE met with the Provincial Health Labour Relations Services (PHLRS) on January 12th, 19th, 26th and February 2nd. We have bargaining dates on February 9th, 16th, 23rd, and March 2nd, 16th and 23rd. We have requested more dates from the PHLRS and are looking at adding evenings and weekends to negotiate as well. If we are not successful in getting more dates, we are exploring legal avenues.
COVID Recognition Pay (Retroactive)
In December of 2021, CUPE sent a letter to the Minister of Health and the Premier of Manitoba asking for the government to provide COVID pay to all support workers. Their response was that this issue had to be dealt with at the bargaining table. The Union has tabled a proposal with the PHLRS that the staff (from personal care homes and home care) that were excluded, be included in the Work Disruption Allowance (WDA) of $5/hour which was part of the Memorandum of Agreement #2 (MOA #2) re. Redeployment.
Those individuals were excluded from the WDA because they should have qualified for the government recognition monies that were paid in January of 2021. That was a one-time payment that is no longer available. CUPE believes these members should qualify for the WDA.
Recognition Pay for Emergency Departments
Part of the letter sent to the government in December 2021 was also asking for the same Emergency Room recognition pay that the nurses received. We received the same response, that it must be dealt with at bargaining. CUPE has tabled a proposal regarding this as well.
We believe this pay should be granted by government as part of emergency pandemic relief, and not as a bargaining proposal. However, we continue to pursue both at the political level, and through negotiations.
Carman Memorial Hospital in Southern Health-Santé Sud
Carman Memorial Hospital has been closed for approximately three (3) weeks for renovations and it is expected to take at least nine (9) weeks. The staff were relocated to work at other sites. The nurses received “relocation pay” that they were able to negotiate in their collective agreement. CUPE Local 4270 requested that the support staff receive the same treatment and relocation pay. Once again, we were told that this must be taken to the bargaining table. CUPE will be tabling a proposal around relocation pay and will be requesting back pay for these affected members from Carman Memorial Hospital.
Petition
CUPE has issued a petition to add pressure to the government to prioritize health care support workers. The petition will flood the emails of the government. We want thousands of emails sent! It is just another way of showing the government the members are behind the Bargaining Council, and that no health care worker should be left behind. As of February 2nd, over 3,000 people have signed the petition. Please share with family and friends as everyone can sign this petition.
You can sign the petition here: https://cupe.ca/support-manitoba-health-care-support-workers-leave-no-health-worker-behind
Please make sure we have your most recent contact information, including cell phone number and personal email. We do not use work contact information to reach you for union business. If you have any questions or comments, please send an email to healthcare@cupe.ca.
If you have any questions or comments, please send an email to healthcare@cupe.ca.
