Manitoba health-care workers set to strike March 7 if deal not reached with province

A union representing thousands of allied health-care professionals in Manitoba has issued a strike deadline of March 7 — the second time in less than two years the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals has threatened job action.

"It's hard to believe we're in this situation again, particularly after this government campaigned on fixing health care and repairing the relationship with front-line workers," MAHCP president Jason Linklater said in an interview with CBC News.

"I am dismayed that it takes a strike to show allied health's value to the employer and to government. It seems to me that they rode in on the health-care horse and then immediately turned their back."

A spokesperson for the province said the government would not provide comment on labour negotiations.

The decision to set a strike date was not made lightly but it is time, says a memo sent by the union to its 7,000 members just after midnight Friday.

"Negotiations will continue as this deadline approaches, and of course, it is the committee's goal to bring you an offer you can accept before the deadline," the memo said.

Members have now been without a contract for 11 months. Negotiations began in April 2024.

Last month, they voted 96 per cent in favour of a strike mandate.

The union represents a wide range of health-care professionals, including rural paramedics and emergency dispatchers, respiratory therapists, lab and diagnostic technologists, social workers, pharmacists, physiotherapists and dietitians.

Agreements are in place to allow health regions to schedule a minimum number of employees to work in the event of a strike, ensuring essential services continue, the union said in a news release.

However, there would be significant delays and disruptions across the province for a wide range of services, including but not limited to:

• Non-emergent surgical procedures.
• Non-emergent lab and diagnostic tests, including MRI, CT, Ultrasound, PET, ECHO, EEG.
• Radiation treatments at CancerCare.
• Therapeutic/rehabilitation services in hospital and community (e.g., physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech language pathology).
• Patient discharge from emergency departments and medical units.
• Home care services.
• Non-emergent patient transports.
• Midwifery appointments, with the exception of late-term or immediate post-natal.
• Assessment and treatment for children with disabilities.
• Non-crisis mental health and addictions services.

"We were hoping by now you would have the opportunity to vote on a deal but the employer continues to show little regard for the value you provide to the health-care system. The last offer they presented tonight is not acceptable," says the message from Linklater and Wayne Chacun, bargaining committee chair.

"This round of negotiations has proven to be very difficult, despite this government's election promise to fix health care," the message says, citing "crushing workloads and critical vacancies" as major concerns.

More than 1,000 allied health positions are vacant across the system, according to Linklater.

"Wages and incentives in competing jurisdictions are higher in many of the in-demand professions. Manitoba has lost many specialized health professionals because of that, and it is certainly still happening," he told CBC News.

In its memo to union members, the MAHCP says "we need the government and Manitoba's health-care employers to step up to the table with a significant investment that acknowledges allied health's value to a functioning system. Time is running out."

Members also issued a strike notice in June 2023 after working without a collective agreement for more than five years.

The union had been bargaining with Shared Health — the organization that oversees health-care delivery in Manitoba — for 15 months before its members voted 99 per cent in favour of a strike mandate.

The strike was averted with a tentative deal struck three days before the deadline. The new contract, which included a retroactive wage increase, was accepted by members in July 2023.

However, because the union had gone for so long without a deal, the new one dated back to 2018 and was nearly expired as soon as it was signed.