CUPE recommends new deal for health-care workers, faces criticism after MGEU workers rejected similar deal

Leaders of a Manitoba health-care union are fending off criticism of a new tentative agreement it wants its support workers to ratify despite support workers in other parts of the province voting against a similar deal.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees in Manitoba is continuing to recommend its 18,000 health-care support workers vote in favour of the contract, even as its members watched their colleagues in the Prairie Mountain and Interlake-Eastern health regions who arerepresented by the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Unionreject a comparable deal on Aug. 15.

CUPE members can vote on the tentative agreement thisTuesday to Thursday.

The blowbackfrom CUPE members has also led to apetition opposing the contractsigned by more than 780people, including the former president of CUPE Local 204,and some heated rhetoric. The union wrote a Facebook postthis month accusingsome members of making "disrespectful" comments and "bullying" individuals.

Debbie Boissonneault, who led Local 204between 2017 to 2023, is among theCUPEmembers planning to vote against thetentative agreement.

"I'm getting a lot of calls. Alot of members are upset that they didn't see some of the incentives that were offered to the nurses and they are recommending their friends vote no," saysBoissonneault, who says she's echoing the voices of union members and her opposition hasnothing to do withlosing her re-election bidlast fall.

"I'm hearing a lot of no's. I'm not hearing a lot of yes's from membership."

Many opposing the deal

The support workers CUPErepresentsincludehealth-care aides, home care attendants and dietary and clerical staff. They work for Shared Health and the Winnipeg, Southern andNorthern regional health authorities.

Boissonneaultstressed she isn'trecommending members votea certain way, but said she believesthe tentative agreement for community support and facility support staff doesn't do enough to addressthe pay gap between support workers and their other health-care colleagues.

When she started as a health-care aide around25 years ago, the hourly wage gap between an aide and a higher-paidregistered nurse was $10, she said.The difference is at least double that today, often more, she said.

"I don't begrudge the nursegetting the wages they get. They're well worth it and they have shortages, but the support[workers]are just as short."

The proposed collective agreementfor support workersincludes a 2.5 per cent general wage increase starting April 1, 2024, a 2.75 per cent increase for 2025and a three per cent increase each for 2026 and 2027. If CUPE members vote to reject the deal, a strike mandate will be in place.

Shannon McAteer, health-care co-ordinator for CUPE Manitoba,said she still believes the current deal is worth supporting, describing it as the best monetary package they've negotiated in many years, "but weabsolutely respectwhatever decision the members make."

While the salary increases in this proposed contract arecomparable to other deals Manitoba's public-sector unions have secured in the first year of the current NDP government, Boissonneault said a similar percentage jumpdoesn't have the same impact onCUPEmembers who are making less than other professionals.

"I really feel that people should talk dollars and cents and not percentages."

Mylene Fontaine, a referral clerk at a health-care facility, said she's living paychequeto paycheque.

"Inflation has gone up so much, so has minimum wage, and we're barely above that," she said.

She said a signing bonus would help to demonstrateshe and her colleagues are being respected.

Health-care support workers represented by MGEUrecently voted against a similar deal with the same wage increase formula asCUPE's tentative collective agreement and, according to a MGEU spokesperson, "It wasn't even close."

MGEUrecommended its members oppose the deal. President Kyle Ross had argued the last offerwouldn't doenough to solve the recruitment and retention issues the sector is facing.

McAteer said the decision of MGEU's membership hasn't changed her approach in selling the benefits of CUPE's tentative agreement.

"It's the same question: why are we recommending it? And we explain that we're recommending it because we do believe it's a fair deal," shesaid.

"Nothing is ever perfect, but we want the members to make that decision," she said.

While announcing the tentative deal in July, CUPE initially touted that the contract was reached after only four months of negotiations. The previous round of negotiations took 21 months under the former Progressive Conservative government.

Frustration understandable: CUPE leader

McAteer attributes some of the anger over the proposed contractto pent-up frustration with the former provincial government, as well as ongoing exhaustion stemming from the pandemic.

"We've been equating it to a geyser or avolcano, right? There's been a lot of pressure on these health-care workers and it's exploding right now," she said.

In addition to higher pay,Boissonneault would like more equality around the benefits offered at different health-care facilities. Some of those issues weren't addressed in the last round of bargaining, completed in2022, that tried to streamlinemore than 120 collective agreements down to one.

McAteer said standardizing the rules will taketime, but progress ishappening. For example, all home care workers areunder the same pay scale in this proposed contract, she said.