(Halifax) - CUPE is pleased to announce that a tentative agreement has been reached on behalf of over 4,000 hospital workers in Nova Scotia.
The deal is being recommended for acceptance by the union, after it achieved its major objectives in bargaining. Ratification meetings will take place within the next week or so and CUPE members will vote on the package that was reached after a marathon round of bargaining that lasted 68 hours.
Picket lines went up at 6:00 a.m. as had been announced by the union well in advance of the January 18 strike deadline. The tentative agreement was reached at approximately 7:30 and the CUPE locals informed their members across the province to take the lines down.
CUPE Acute Care Co-ordinator Wayne Thomas says, “We are very pleased that our strike issue of wage parity has been addressed and that our members are back at work today, taking care of the health care needs of Nova Scotians.
“We are disappointed, to say the least, that we had to take strike action after giving our employers and the provincial government 12 days notice of a strike deadline and all kinds of time to reach a negotiated settlement,” says Thomas.
“I also want to emphasize that at no point did either side walk away from the table. Rather, we worked hard through the night and all morning to come up with this settlement. We would also like to thank our members for their unbelievably strong support and the people of this province for understanding the importance of our wage parity issue for workers in rural Nova Scotia.
“We’d also like to thank Conciliator Charlie Weir for the constructive role he played in this round of bargaining,” says Thomas.