CUPE Local 500 > News/Media > News Archive > Health Care Bargaining Update #9 - October, 2021

Health Care Bargaining Update #9 - October, 2021

October 19, 2021 at 3:32 PM

CUPE has been fighting for you at the bargaining table.  CUPE met with the Provincial Health Labour Relations Services (PHLRS) on September 1, 8, 21, 29 and October 6, 2021.  Negotiations are ongoing, and we are calling on the PHLRS to leave no health care worker behind.

Status of Bargaining

Progress is being made in bargaining around the language proposals. The big issues at the table right now include vacation, hours of work, scheduling, overtime, and layoff/recall.

We are finally able to begin discussions about monetary matters.  Wage increases are still to be discussed as well as market adjustments.

Seniority

It was decided that the issue of how seniority will be applied would be sent to the Commissioner (who was responsible for the health care amalgamations) for mediation.

CUPE and the Employer representatives met with the Commissioner to discuss the seniority issue.  The Commissioner ruled that seniority needs to match the support sector bargaining units (Facility Support and Community Support) that were split by the representation votes.  We will work towards resolving the seniority issue with that understanding.

MNU (the nurses) have reached a tentative agreement, which is great news.  CUPE is pushing for support staff negotiations to be the priority and is launching a public campaign to bring attention to health care support staff.

Essential Services and Strike

CUPE continues to negotiate essential services agreements.  We are required by law, to have an essential services agreement in place before we can go on strike.  Most of these agreements are now completed.

In the event we do call for a strike, we have prepared a questions and answers document for you that you can find here.

The next bargaining dates are:

Ÿ  October 27th;

Ÿ  November 3rd, 10th and 17th;

Ÿ  December 1st.

Please make sure we have your most recent contact information, including cell phone number and personal email.  We do not use work contact information to reach you for union business.

If you have any questions or comments, please send an email to healthcare@cupe.ca.