Sask. health-care workers call for action, higher wages at legislature

On Wednesday, buses filled with health-care workers from across the province arrived at the Saskatchewan Legislative Building, calling for fair wages and greater respect for front-line workers.

"We have been without a contract for over two years now and health-care workers have not seen a single increase in wages for the past three years," said Bashir Jalloh, president of Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 5430. 

"Because of this, we as health-care workers are struggling, our members are struggling, we have significant workload issues and ongoing staff shortages." 

CUPE 5430 represents more than 14,000 health-care workers in over 200 job classifications across Saskatchewan.

"We represent people mainly in five different classification from clerical and nursing technologies and maintenance workers, and also the people who look after our buildings," Jalloh explained. 

Wednesday's rally, which CUPE says was attended by hundreds, was a push for wages that reflect the rising cost of living, and recognition for the essential work health-care workers perform every day.

"I would love to stay in the job that I am with the people that I work with, the physicians, the nurses, the unit," said Kayla Gelmich, a health-care worker at Regina's Pasqua Hospital. 

"It's a great unit, but it's also hard when you don't get paid for the work that you do and go above and beyond." 

Gelmich added that working seven days a week is sometimes the only way to bring home a decent paycheck.

"It's hard to stay in one spot when there's other people that are getting paid significantly more for less work."

Low wages driving trained professionals out of Saskatchewan is also a concern that Jalloh shares. 

"People are leaving this province to go to other provinces," said Jalloh. "We want a wage that will let our kids who are getting into health care to stay in this province so they can pay their student loan."

Amira Lukic, a continuing care aid in Regina, said at Wednesday's rally that almost 60 per cent of her wage goes toward her rent. 

"At 60, I have to work overtime in order to live, or if there wasn't any overtime I would have to find second job just in order to live," Lukic said. 

'Everything is on the table' 

Jalloh described negotiations with the provincial government as "extremely disappointing," noting that the union has been ready to vote on a deal since April 2023.

"They drag their feet. We did not start bargaining until September," he said. 

Despite meeting with the province every two months, Jalloh said much of the time that should be spent bargaining is not being used effectively.

"In February we had a bargaining meeting in Saskatoon of three days," said Jalloh. "Over the three days that we met with them, they only met with us face to face for 41 minutes." 

The union was offered a three percent wage increase — an offer Jalloh said fell short.

The Ministry of Health said in a statement that the "Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO) offered an unprecedented interim wage adjustment of three per cent, retroactive to April 1, 2023, to health provider unions." 

The offer, declined by CUPE, SGEU, and SEIU-West, was made in the hope of, "providing some temporary economic relief to our valued health-care employees while negotiations for a long-term contract continue," the statement said. 

Now, CUPE 5430 is set to return to the bargaining table on April 29, hopeful for what they will consider a fair deal.

"Everything is on this table," said Jalloh. 

"We're going to meet May 5 to start talking about essential services to negotiate that we have everything on this table. If we don't get what we want, definitely we will resort to job action."

The ministry said it has confidence that upcoming negotiations will be successful, and they have investments in this year's budget supporting the recruitment of health-care workers in the province.