MOOSE JAW — For the third time in five months, health-care workers in Moose Jaw held an information picket to highlight the struggles their union is facing with current collective bargaining discussions.
About a dozen SEIU-West members faced snowy conditions on March 11 as they walked around Providence Place and the Moose Jaw Special Care Home — formerly Extendicare — to showcase their frustrations with bargaining efforts with the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO).
The union’s previous contract ended on March 31, 2023, and SEIU-West served a notice to hold a bargaining meeting in January 2023. However, the meeting was delayed until October 2023, likely due to the government having only one bargaining team.
“We are out hoping to get a fair contract from SAHO and the employers … ,” said Kevin Martin, a continuing care assistant at the Special Care Home and the group’s spokesman.
“We would like fair wage increases (and) safe staffing levels for the residents and the staff,” he added. “(So) we’re just out here trying to get the word out.”
This is the third time that health-care staff have held information pickets, as their and their
There has been very little movement in negotiations since January, as SAHO meets with SEIU-WEST once a month since it has only one negotiating team and must also meet with CUPE and SGEU, said Martin.
“We just seem to be stuck,” he remarked.
Martin agreed that this has been a frustrating process, especially since he is on the bargaining committee with SEIU-West and also works. He pointed out that members’ wages have been falling behind other unions and need to reach similar levels.
None of the parties has discussed increasing wages yet because each is working to achieve its demands, so that topic will likely arise when all three meet with SAHO at the end of negotiations, said Martin.
The union spokesman noted that SEIU-West is promoting a letter-writing campaign on its website, which allows residents to write to their MLAs to push for a contract resolution.
“Just try to show some support for us. We’re out here doing our best with what we got, but it’s hard to recruit people when it’s hard to make ends meet,” Martin added.
SAHO responds
The update summarized a meeting that the four parties held in mid-November about potentially advancing negotiations more quickly, with SAHO alleging that the unions presented no suggestions for furthering discussions. Instead, the unions allegedly proposed immediate settlement of all monetary issues and any remaining issues be left for future talks.
The parties met on Feb. 13, where SAHO says that “in an unprecedented move, and in recognition of the current financial pressures felt by employees,” it offered a salary increase of three per cent retroactive to April 1, 2023.
However, this was contingent upon the parties resolving all outstanding individual union issues by mid-April and beginning negotiations on the remaining issues at a common table by early May.
SAHO says it offered a “letter of understanding” (LOU) to ensure that collective bargaining could continue without interruption since the agreements would not be rolled over or closed.
Furthermore, to expedite negotiations, the organization allegedly proposed that each party submit a list of bargaining proposals to discuss at a common table with all parties present, while any remaining individual union proposals would be fast-tracked. SAHO also allegedly suggested using a neutral third party to assist with the process.
The parties then met on Feb. 19, where SAHO says it provided the LOU to the unions, but the unions allegedly rejected the offer.
“SAHO is disappointed as the LOU met the goal of providing timely economic relief to employees and addressed the need to expedite the pace of collective bargaining while ensuring the integrity of the bargaining process,” it said.
SAHO claimed the “offer was unprecedented” since it took “a creative and innovative approach” to addressing employees’ monetary concerns and improved negotiation timelines. It alleged that the unions rejected a monetary offer totalling $90 million, which meant most full-time employees would miss out on retroactive pay of $2,000 to $5,500.
SAHO added that it remained committed “to a fair and transparent bargaining process” and hoped there would be an opportunity to continue discussions to improve the process.
