REGINA, Sask. — Tuesday marks the start of an important strike vote by CUPE Saskatchewan Local 5430 health-care workers.
Members of CUPE 5430 will be voting starting Sept. 8 and continuing to Sept. 14. The union states that ballots will be going out by email starting today. The union represents more than 13,600 health-care workers in Saskatchewan.
In a Facebook post Monday, the CUPE 5430 union alerted members to the upcoming vote by posting, "Ready. Set. Vote! Starting tomorrow, you can vote YES and help us send the government the message that it's time for a fair deal."
Right now, there remains little progress to report toward an agreement. In its most recent update from Aug. 20, the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations reported that while some movement was noted in a couple of areas during talks in August, "CUPE is refusing to engage in exchanges of proposals on movement of employees and work outside of their territory or contracting in. Discussions in these areas are necessary to find solutions to the modernization of the delivery of health care in the province."
The CUPE 5430 union posted that its bargaining committee had met with SAHO on Aug. 27 and 28, but in an update on its website reported no movement on one of its most important issues: the movement of workers from one location to another.
"Unfortunately, the employer has made little movement on our key priorities and continues to stall negotiations unless we accept their unreasonable proposals around the movement of work/workers and contracting in," they stated. "We know that we cannot continue to exchange the same proposals back and forth with the employer without movement on their part."
The union has also stated that a yes vote does not mean members are immediately going on strike, but said a "decisive strike mandate shows the employer we are united and ready to fight for the deal we deserve."
CUPE also states on its website that more negotiations with SAHO are due to take place Sept. 10 and 11.
