MGEU recommends health-care support workers reject employers' latest contract offer

Health-care support workers in parts of Manitobaare being encouraged to reject what theiremployers arereportedly calling their bestoffer on a new collective agreement.

TheManitoba Government and General Employees' Union says its bargaining committee is recommendingits roughly 6,000community support and facility support staff at Prairie Mountain and Interlake-Eastern regional health authorities vote against the contract offer.

The employers described it as their "best offer," MGEU said on Thursday.

The workers representedincludehealth-care aides, home care attendants and dietary and clerical staff.

MGEU's positionstands in contrast to thatof the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which recommended Wednesday its members who are health-care support workersendorse thecontract offer.

CUPE's members workforShared Health and the Winnipeg, Southern andNorthern regional health authorities.

MGEU president Kyle Ross said he cannot speak to the decisions made byCUPE's bargaining team, but "our members don't think this deal goes far enough."He understandsthecontract offers to be fairly similar, he said.

Ross said the latest offer from the MGEU employersdoesn't solve the recruitment and retention issues the sector is facing.

"These workers have very difficult jobs and there's a higher recruitment issue where we can't bring people into these roles," he said, explaining his members are likely encounteringhigher vacancy rates than their colleagues in CUPE.

In a recent self-created report, MGEUreportedmore than 30 per cent of health-care aide jobs in Prairie Mountain are unfilled. The vacancy rate exceeds 40 per cent in 16 of the health region's facilities.

Growing cost of agency help

It also states Prairie Mountain and Interlake-Eastern spent a combined $8.3 million on private health-care aides in 2021-22. Two years later, the health regions saw thatamount triple to nearly $29.7 million.

Despite the bargaining committee's recommendation, MGEU members can still accept or reject the latest offer. A rejection from enough members gives the union a mandate to strike, but it doesn't mean a work stoppagewould happen immediately.

Ross said the employers' latest offer, while following the same annual wage increase formula that nurses and teachers received, doesn't have the same"goodies" nurses got. He declined to elaborate because they're still at the bargaining table.

In thelatest offer, wages are slated to increase2.5 per cent in the first year, 2.75 per cent in the second year and threeper cent in each of the final two years of the deal.