SASKATOON—Waving the signature purple-coloured SEIU-West flags, using noise makers, and wearing signs that show what their demands are, close to 40 members of Saskatchewan’s labour union for health-care workers held another information picket on Wednesday, April 23, outside the Saskatoon Convalescent Home on the corner of Idylwyld Drive and 31st Street.
SEIU-West Vice President Jason Monteith said their pickets will continue, as their way of informing the public that they remain without a collective agreement for more than two years, adding that this will only end once the demands that they have presented at the bargaining table, like fair wages and better working conditions, are met.
“Our members want this resolved. Our bargaining team wants this resolved. We want to be at the bargaining table and resolve this issue quickly, but we also want to ensure that our members receive a fair deal. We regularly update our membership information on our website. Bargaining's going slow,” Monteith told Â鶹ÊÓƵ.
“Without getting into specifics, it's just things are going far slower than we'd like, and at the end of the day, ... we know what our members want and what our members are demanding, and we can't accept anything less than what we know and what we're hearing from our members.”
He added he has no idea why things are moving slowly and when a deal will be reached between the two parties. Both sides remain deadlocked at the negotiating table, as they feel they are not getting what they deserve which highlights the status of the province’s health-care system.
“Our members need pay increases. We are seeing the cost of living increase. Until we start seeing significant pay increases and improvements to our collective agreement, our members will not accept anything, and we certainly will not accept any rollbacks. We see that they are short-staffed in care homes, long-term care facilities and hospitals,” said Monteith.
“There are not enough people to do the work. People are working double shifts, or 16-hour and 12-hour shifts. As I said previously, we have heard that one LPN, one of our members had worked a 26-hour shift due to insufficient staffing in a facility within the province, and in health care, that's just unacceptable.”
He said the information pickets will be held in facilities all over the province to continue their campaign of creating awareness among the public. Hopefully, the government will finally listen to their demands for hiring more staff to offset the workload their members are experiencing.
“Our members who work in health care, their wages aren't keeping up with the cost of living, they're working short-staffed and have heavy workloads. It is imperative that we get to the table and secure a fair collective agreement for our members. They deserve it, and they're demanding it,” said Monteith.
