New Democratic Party Leader Jim Dinn will present to the House of Assembly a petition signed by nearly 1,400 CUPE service and support workers employed by Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services that demanded the Furey government meet to discuss solutions for ongoing recruitment and retention issues.
Despite previous attempts to engage in an ongoing dialogue with the Furey government, including an earlier petition with over 1,400 signatures, when service and support health care workers met with the Minister of Health John Hogan, they were told their concerns were “bargaining issues.”
“It’s funny to me that, when the Furey government decided to give select classifications raises outside of bargaining last year, it wasn’t a ‘bargaining issue,’” said CUPE Newfoundland and Labrador President Sherry Hillier. “If the government is going to offer health care workers wage increases outside of bargaining, they need to treat all health care workers equally.”
Last summer, the Furey government offered a one-time wage increase to several health care classifications based on previous increases negotiated by the Registered Nurses Union, RNU, and Allied Health. These increases were added outside of normal bargaining in addition to what had been bargained by CUPE and NAPE earlier that year. Service and support health care workers were not invited to these discussions.
“We presented our first petition to every MHA in the province, including the Premier, and even met with the new Minister of Health,” said Rowena Bourgeois, an accounting clerk working at Bay St. George Long Term Care Centre, “and yet our concerns were dismissed. Why are the concerns of doctors and nurses a priority, but ours are merely a bargaining issue?”
“As an LPN, I spent years working alongside service and support staff and I’ve seen firsthand how vital they are to the effectiveness of our health care facilities,” said Hillier. “Without them, our hospitals, our health care systems, don’t work. End of story.”