CUPE health care workers lined up at the front of Pasqua Hospital Thursday afternoon, still without a new contract. They were last offered a five year, 12 per cent deal, seven points below the five-year inflation rate. The union says they have continuing care assistants walking across hospitals, community health facilities, laboratories and long-term care facilities, with wages around four dollars below any province in Canada. “What we want is, what are we going to do to keep health care workers in this province?” said Bashir Jalloh, President of CUPE 5430. “If you look at every classification, our wages are way below that of the Western Canada average. For example, our hard-working environmental service workers, their wage is about $3.75 below what is the Western Canada average.” The union represents 14,000 health care workers across the province. Members of CUPE 5430 say they have not had a raise since April 1st, 2022. Jalloh said when health care workers are undervalued and not fairly compensated, they end up leaving the province, which will cause problems. “When people leave this province, what is that going to result to? It’s going to result into long wait times for us to get the services we need. It’s going to lead to service disruption; it’s going to increase the pressure in hospitals and long-term care facilities all across this province. The patients will pay the price.” The union says they’ve been bargaining for over three years. Jalloh said the members have been patient, having gone through the cost-of living crisis. “During COVID-19, people used to call health care workers heroes,” he said. ”Once that was done, we were tossed out by both the employer and this government. They continue to tell us that we should be patient, and we have been extremely patient. We need an immediate conclusion to this round of bargaining. If it is not, we will take the next step, which is a job action.” The union says if a deal is not reached soon, they plan to hold a strike vote from Sept. 8 to 14.
