By Andrew de Souza

Healthcare professionals give strike notice

May 6, 2011 | 5:34 PM

The union representing around 3000 healthcare professionals in the Saskatchewan has given the provincial government 48-hour’s strike notice.

At 2 p.m. on Friday, Health Sciences Association of Saskatchewan Cathy Dickson delivered the official notice in Prince Albert after receiving 88 per cent of the union vote.

Dickson said the union wants wages in the province to be competitive with the rest of Western Canada and also for the province to actively recruit more badly needed professional workers.

The union has been without a contract for two years. The most recent offer from the union asked for an 18.5 per cent increase over four years as well as changes to extended benefits.

But after the province rejected the latest offer by the union, Dickson said giving a strike notice was the only option.

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“We regret having to put any of the public at risk, we’ve done everything we possibly could for two years,” she said.

“But we need competitive wages for our professions so that people will come here and will stay.”

Dickson said with such low wages when compared to neighboring provinces it’s difficult to bring in young workers especially when they have student loan debts.

“If you’re a young person who has a student loan that’s astronomical in this day and age, would you get a job in Saskatchewan or would you go across the border to Alberta where you can get 25 per cent more on wages.”

Employer disagrees with union’s claims

Meanwhile, the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations, which represents the health regions and negotiates on their behalf, is maintaining their position has remained fair despite the union’s objections.

Organization president Susan Antosh said they’ve consistently been offering competitive wages and have in fact been recruiting employees, having increased staff numbers by about 20 per cent.

“That demonstrates that we have been recruiting and I think it also demonstrates that we’re having no trouble recruiting and retaining these classifications of employees,” she said.

Antosh said that many of the demands from the union were excessively large and that counter offers have been reasonable.

“They did come in with a very, very large number that they wanted changed, they did come in with a large increase that they were looking at,” she said.

“We’ve been very clear throughout that what we’re interested in is competitive wages and we believe what we put on the table already provides competitive wages.”

As an example, Antosh 17 of the 26 categories covered by the union already mane the second highest in the Western provinces.

Now that the union has given notice, health regions will have to put together their plans to deal with fewer employees.

In the Prince Albert Parkland Health Region, about 190 equivalent employees are part of the union and 40 per cent are considered essential and cannot walk off the job.

The strike deadline is Sunday at 2 p.m.

The following sectors are covered by the union:
• Addictions Counsellors
• Assessor/Coordinators
• Audiologists
• Dental Therapists
• Dietitians
• Emergency Medical Services (Parkland Ambulance employees are not in the union.)
• Exercise/Conditioning Therapists
• Genetic Counsellors
• Health Educators
• Infection Control Practitioners
• Mental Health Therapists
• Music Therapists
• Nutritionists
• Occupational Therapists
• Orthoptists
• Orthotists
• Perfusionists
• Pharmacists
• Physical Therapists
• Prosthetists
• Psychologists
• Psychometricians
• Public Health Inspectors
• Recreation Therapists
• Respiratory Therapists
• Social Workers
• Speech & Language Pathologists

At Canadian Blood Services:

• Bio-Medical Technologist
• Laboratory Technologists

adesouza@panow.com