CUPE, MGEU ratify deals for health-care support workers

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This article was published 18/10/2024 (699 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Union members representing a total of more than 25,000 health-care support workers have voted to ratify a new collective agreement.

A tentative contract deal that was reached about 90 minutes before a strike deadline on Oct. 8.

“Our members stuck together to get a really good deal that will help solve the health-care staffing crises,” CUPE 500 president Gord Delbridge said in a news release Friday afternoon.

“We have built an agreement that helps recruit new members and retain the ones we have.”

About 19,000 of the health-care support workers are represented by CUPE Manitoba, while about 6,600 are represented by the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union. Members of both unions voted to ratify the deal.

The agreement includes an average wage increase of 27 per cent over the four years of the deal and an increase in the starting wage for high-vacancy positions. There are also improvements to sick leave and vacation provisions, and the addition of wellness days. There were also significant improvements to scheduling practices and mileage rates for home-came workers, the MGEU said.

“We are pleased that members were willing to stand together to get wage increases that will help them catch up and keep up, and will help address the health-care staffing crisis,” MGEU president Kyle Ross said in another news release. “Their hard work and commitment to patient care are at the heart of our health-care system, and this new agreement recognizes the value of their contributions.”

The workers include health-care aides, laundry workers, dietary aides, ward clerks, recreation co-ordinators and other support staff. A strike would have affected patients and clients living in the Winnipeg, Interlake-Eastern, Prairie Mountain and Southern Health regions.

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