Long Term Care

Late last night (Monday, August 29, 2022) the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) health care bargaining team and the Provincial Health Labour Relations Services (PHLRS) reached a tentative agreement after twenty-one months of bargaining, for 18,000 health care support workers in Manitoba.

The CUPE bargaining team includes representatives from CUPE 204 (Shared Health, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority), CUPE 4270 (Southern Health-Santé Sud), CUPE 8600 (Northern Regional Health Authority), and CUPE 500 (Riverview Health Centre/WRHA).

A tentative agreement is when both parties agree that the proposed contract can be presented to workers for a vote on whether to accept or reject the new agreement.

The CUPE bargaining team will be recommending acceptance of the new agreement.

Please take time to review the highlight document.  A full ratification document will be available prior to the ratification.

Ratification (voting) will occur in the coming weeks.  Details on when these votes will take place will be shared in the next few days.  There will be many information sessions for CUPE members to ask questions about the tentative agreement, held in-person as well as virtually.

Members are encouraged to ensure their personal contact information is up to date.  We want to make sure all CUPE members have the opportunity to ask questions at the info sessions before the voting takes place.

We thank the CUPE health care bargaining team for their steadfast dedication to members through an incredibly difficult round of negotiations, including throughout the pandemic.

We also thank all CUPE members for their patience, support, and encouragement over the past five years, and for giving CUPE the strike mandate needed to keep the pressure on government.

Your support has helped push the government towards a deal that is acceptable, and which lays a stronger foundation for the next round of bargaining.

Tentative agreement highlights document (pdf)

CUPE continues to negotiate your collective agreement with the goal of leaving no health care worker behind.

Your negotiating team continues to meet with the mediator, Arne Peltz, including on July 28^th and 29^th as well as August 3^rd and 4^th in the evenings.  Mediation will continue August 10^th, 29^th and 30^th.  We will most likely get additional dates between August 10^th and the 29th.

On August 3^rd, CUPE tabled all our remaining proposals.  The Employer is working on a comprehensive response for next week.  We are seeing some movement at the bargaining table on our issues, so we are working hard to continue fighting for improvements to the collective agreement.

We have made great progress on more monetary proposals such as shift premiums, shoe allowance, and uniforms, as well as numerous letters of understanding.

Outstanding issues are vacation, training and education, how STAT days will be taken, sick time for pick-up shifts, and letters of understanding around hours of work.  There are a few monetary items still outstanding as well, such as northern isolation/retention allowance, benefits/pensions for community groups, responsibility pay, and wages.  The remaining language proposals are important and will affect your day-to-day job, so we are fighting for these improvements.

CUPE has also requested market adjustments for several classifications.  A market adjustment is adjusting the salary scale to match other similar jobs in the province.  Most often the need for an adjustment comes from not being able to hire and retain employees.  CUPE and the MGEU are discussing forming a multi-union table to discuss the market adjustments with the Employer.

MGEU has reached a tentative agreement in Prairie Mountain and the Interlake regions.  The reason they reached an agreement before our table is because they simply did not have as many collective agreements to merge.  With so many groups in CUPE we want to make sure none of them are left behind. That is why our table is taking longer.  The Bargaining Council is fighting very hard to get a good collective agreement that addresses all members concerns including the general wage increase.

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.

CUPE met with the Provincial Health Labour Relations Services (PHLRS) on December 8 & 15, 2021.  We have bargaining dates in January on the 5^th, 12^th, 19^th and 26^th.  We have proposed dates in February and March and are waiting on the Employer to confirm.

Status of Bargaining

We were able to agree to more language proposals around Hours of Work and Leaves of Absence.  There are a lot of rumours right now about what is or isn’t happening at bargaining.  Please confirm with your site representative on any rumors you hear.  There has been no offer on wage increases by the Employer yet.  We have not started discussion on any monetary items, including wage increases.

Since we began bargaining the parties have exchanged 73 documents.  Our original proposal package contained over 600 proposals.  That did not include all the Letters of Understanding at the back of each collective agreement.  We have agreed to approximately 30% of the language proposals.  We understand we keep saying it is a slow process, but this is why.  It is not just about getting a wage increase; we have to negotiate every item for your new collective agreement.  The Bargaining Council asks for your continued patience as we fight for each of you.  Our goal is to leave no health care worker behind.

Bill 28 – Public Services Sustainability Act (wage freeze)

The public sector unions, through the Manitoba Federation of Labour (MFL), have filed an application to the Supreme Court of Canada.  We reported that the MFL won the court case against Bill 28 a few months back.  The government appealed that decision, and their appeal was upheld.  This overturned the MFL’s win.  However, because of the community’s pushback against Bill 28 the government, under Premier Stefanson, has repealed Bill 28 for now.  There is concern that they may resurrect it under a new version in the future.  Therefore, the MFL is taking their case to the Supreme Court.  We expect this will be a lengthy process, but the wage freeze legislation being withdrawn should lift a cloud over our negotiations.

Campaign

CUPE health care members should expect to see campaigns popping up across Manitoba in the new year, raising awareness about the important work health care support workers do, as well as calling on the government to support our members.  We will also be launching campaigns building solidarity within the membership, because we will not win if we are divided.

CUPE also continues to advocate for safe workplaces, better staffing levels, and against government cuts to health care.

Wishing you and your loved ones a safe and joyous holiday season and all the best for 2022!  Special thanks to all the health care workers who are working over the holiday season, and all those who have been working hard throughout another difficult year.

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.

CUPE met with the Provincial Health Labour Relations Services (PHLRS) on October 27, November 3, 10, 17 and December 1, 2021.  Negotiations are ongoing, and we are calling on the PHLRS to leave no healthcare worker behind.

Status of Bargaining

The Bargaining Council has agreed to some language proposals.  Some of these include maternity/parental leave, emergency leave, emergency and disaster planning, whistle blower protection, union security, respectful workplace and non-discrimination/harassment, many definitions, grievance and arbitration rules and many more.

The Bargaining Council is having to fight for every proposal.  It is not like any other bargaining that has come before.  This is why bargaining seems to be taking so long – we are working article by article to make sure no health worker is left behind.

Discussions are ongoing regarding job security, vacation, hours of work, scheduling, overtime, and layoff/recall.  Wage increases are still to be discussed as well as market adjustments.

Bill 28 – Public Services Sustainability Act (wage freeze 0, 0, 0.75 and 1%)

The government announced last week that they will be repealing or cancelling this legislation.  CUPE and the other public sector unions had taken the government to court over this wage freeze legislation.  The Unions won but the government appealed that decision.  The appeal judge overturned the decision.  Despite this, the government felt the pressure from unions, including CUPE, and is withdrawing the legislation altogether.  We continue to work with the Manitoba Federation of Labour on legal routes to ensure governments cannot interfere with bargaining.  This is an important victory for CUPE members.  The Bargaining Council had no intention of accepting the mandated wage freeze but having this pressure removed means we can bargain a fair wage increase at the table.

We have bargaining dates scheduled to the end of January 2022.

Strike

Negotiations are continuing and we are making progress.  We understand it is slow.  Fighting to maintain the protections and rules in the collective agreement takes time.  After the representation votes members from many different unions came to CUPE.  Their collective agreements have different and unique language that we are trying to maintain such as language for hours of work, shift schedule rules, overtime, and shift premiums, just to name a few.

It is very important that we fight to maintain this collective agreement language, but that will unfortunately take a lot of time.  There were over 123 collective agreements that are merging into one province-wide collective agreement.

While negotiations continue, we will not serve notice to strike.  In August, healthcare support workers took a strike vote to show the employers that we are serious about leaving no healthcare worker behind.  If negotiations break down, we will be ready to strike.  We’re not quite at that point.

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.

Health care support staff in the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Shared Health, Southern Health-Santé Sud, and Northern Regional Health Authority are preparing for a strike vote.

“Health care support staff have been fighting on the front lines to keep our communities safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, while also enduring the Pallister government’s drawn-out attacks on health care,” says Lee McLeod, CUPE Regional Director. “Support staff are the pillars of health care, but are being treated as if they don’t matte­r—and that is unacceptable.”

Health care support staff have not had a new contract since 2017 when the government first tabled unconstitutional wage freeze legislation. 

Furthermore, the provincial government introduced legislation that amalgamated health care contracts – forcing dozens of contracts to be merged, pushing negotiations into 2021. Additionally, the provincial government forced cuts across health care since first being elected, resulting in a staffing and morale crisis. 

“Health care support staff are under so much pressure, and the government has shown very little respect for the work they do. After years without a contract, health care support staff want to see real support from the government, and that includes a fair contract for all staff,” said McLeod. “We are fighting to make sure no health care worker is left behind.”

CUPE is currently holding information sessions, as well as meet and greets with health care support staff to discuss the status of bargaining. The strike vote is expected to be held online and in-person, depending on the region, on August 18, 2021. No strike date has been set yet.

CUPE health care members please contact your local union to update your contact information as soon as possible.

CUPE 204, members register here.
CUPE 4270, information here or contact healthcare@cupe.ca.
CUPE 8600, members contact cupe8600@outlook.com or call/text 204 680-6072
CUPE 500, contact union@cupe500.mb.ca or click here.

CUPE represents 18,000 health care support staff across Manitoba in both Community Support and Facility Support roles in the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Shared Health, Southern Health Santé-Sud, and Northern Regional Health Authority.

Bargaining update for CUPE health care members.

Strike/job action

The CUPE Bargaining Council may call on the members for a strike mandate (vote) to support their efforts at the bargaining table.  Normally, unions do not call for a strike vote until there is a significant break down in the negotiations.  We are not at that point quite yet but CUPE has begun preparations in case we need to call for a strike vote.

A strike committee has met and are preparing for the potential of a province-wide strike.  We are not calling for a strike vote yet but the planning required for 18,000 members to go on strike is huge and that is why we must start preparing now.

Why are we not striking like the nurses?

The Manitoba Nurses’ Union (MNU) has taken a strike vote.  The nurses did not have as many collective agreements or classifications to merge into one collective agreement as CUPE, therefore they are further along in the process.  They also started bargaining four months before we did.

CUPE has over 123 collective agreements all with very different contract language.  CUPE wants to protect as much language as possible from all the collective agreements, so this requires a longer process at the bargaining table.  CUPE members have told us that protecting this language is important.

MNU has also stated they will be doing different types of strike/job action rather than stopping working.  Unions will not be able to stop providing essential care in a strike especially with the COVID crisis.

CUPE supports MNU and will stand in solidarity with them throughout any strike or job action.

What is binding arbitration?

Currently The Labour Relations Act allows for unions to apply for binding arbitration after sixty (60) days on strike. Binding arbitration is where an arbitrator (sort of judge) decides what will be in a collective agreement.  Usually, binding arbitration is only used when there are a few outstanding items, most often wages, that the parties cannot come to agreement on.  Once the binding arbitration process has started, whatever the arbitrator decides is what the union gets.  There is no voting on a collective agreement.

How does Essential Services affect a strike?

Before any health care union can go on strike an Essential Services Agreement (ESA) must be negotiated.  This is law.

CUPE is negotiating updated ESAs with the Employers.  The Bargaining Council may be calling on members for information regarding staffing levels and required duties for each classification at your site.   The Essential Services Act(Health Care) of Manitoba requires the unions to provide essential care so as not to affect the “life and limb” of clients/patients/residents.

We thank all CUPE members for their feedback and concerns.  We are doing everything we can to protect and improve your collective agreement and fight for fair wage increases.