Health care workers in Northern Manitoba will be meeting next week to vote on the province’s final contract settlement offer, which was presented Jan. 29.
The labour relations secretariat presented the government’s final settlement offer to the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals (MAHCP) central table bargaining committee last Friday on the condition that it be presented to members for ratification.
The ratification vote will include electronic voting Feb. 6-8, in-person meetings and voting in Northern Manitoba from Feb. 10-12 and in-person meetings and voting in Winnipeg Feb. 16-18. A final tally is expected Feb. 19 if the union is successful in securing facilities for holding votes.
The central table bargaining unit – the largest group of members of the MAHCP – has been negotiating a contract to replace its previous contract, which expired in March 2014, for a year-and-a-half. The details of the offer will be presented to members prior to voting getting underway Feb. 6.
“Due to the nature of this final settlement offer, the MAHCP’s central table bargaining committee is not recommending either acceptance or rejection of this offer,” said MAHCP president Bob Moroz in a news release. “We are calling to all members in central table to study the offer closely and come to their own conclusions on how to vote.”
MAHCP held information pickets in Winnipeg, The Pas and Flin Flon Jan. 25-29 after informing the provincial government of its intention to strike if an offer wasn’t presented by Jan. 31.
The union voted 88 per cent in favour of a strike mandate in online voting and in-person meetings between Sept. 21 and Oct. 6.
The MAHCP represents about 4,000 health care workers in 160-plus disciplines at several major hospitals and clinics in Winnipeg and Northern Manitoba.
MAHCP members in the Northern Regional Health Authority include audiologists, dietitians, occupational therapists, pharmacists, physiotherapists, speech language pathologists, social workers, diabetes educators, mental health clinicians and respiratory therapists, among others.
