‘Dynacare sucks:’ premier muses about bringing lab services back into public system after strike halted

Manitoba’s premier said the province is looking at bringing diagnostic lab services back into the public system rather than continuing to contract Dynacare, declaring the for-profit company “sucks.”

“Maybe we’ll take over the whole system… we’re working on it, we’re looking at it, the situation is not great, this company’s making a mess — I think it’s pretty clear I’m not happy with them,” Premier Wab Kinew told CBC Radio Wednesday morning. “At the same time, nobody should be trying to use people’s health care as leverage.”

Kinew made the comments the day after the Manitoba Labour Board cut short a strike by 350 lab technicians and technologists employed by Dynacare, which administers blood, urine and other medical tests for patients in Winnipeg, Brandon and surrounding communities.

Dynacare, which is contracted by the provincial government, performs the majority of non-emergency blood and urine tests in the province.

Public laboratories at hospitals, which are operated by provincial health authority Shared Health, also perform diagnostic blood and urine tests.

The board ruled late Tuesday afternoon the workers, who hit the picket line that day at 6 a.m., must return to work Wednesday.

Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals that represents Dynacare workers, slammed the board’s decision.

The province had asked the labour board to issue an interim order to halt the strike involving workers at all 22 Dynacare locations over concerns the consequences could be “catastrophic” to the health of Manitobans. The order was issued following a four-hour hearing.

The board decided to send all private lab employees back to work until it decides whether Dynacare should have an essential services agreement with its union.

Dynacare and the union had agreed earlier this year non-emergent tests should not be subject to such an agreement.

Linklater has argued the province’s labour board application was government meddling in contract negotiations.

On Wednesday, Kinew sidestepped a question on whether the timing of the labour board request constituted government interference.

“We have to continue getting people’s cancer tests processed, that’s not interference, that’s government taking care of patients, that’s delivering health care,” he said.

He pointed the finger at the Progressive Conservatives for inking a contract with Dynacare when that party was in power nearly a decade ago, calling it health-care privatization.

Kinew also criticized Dynacare directly.

“Yeah, Dynacare sucks. I’ve got no problem saying that. Dynacare should give these workers a raise,” Kinew told CBC.

The company’s laboratory technicians and technologists have been without a contract since March 31. The union argues its workers make about 20 to 50 per cent less than workers who perform similar duties in the public system. The union also represents those workers.

The union is seeking wage parity with public-sector workers, but it said Dynacare was not willing to address that concern last week. The union has said as of 2017, Dynacare workers made similar wages to those performing similar work in the public sector.

Dynacare operations appeared to be back to normal Wednesday morning.

One patient who went to the company’s Marion Street location for routine bloodwork ordered by her doctor a couple of weeks ago expected a long wait, but left after under 20 minutes.

“It was really quick,” said Aisha Turk, 26, who was unaware of the brief strike.

Last week, when she looked into getting the bloodwork done, Dynacare had wait times upward of three hours, so she put it off until she had a day off, she said.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca