Supporters and members of the Service Employees International Union West (SEIU-West) will be holding an
information picket on April 23, 2010, in front of MLA Wayne Elhard’s constituency office.

These health care providers, who reside in the Cypress Hills constituency, have attempted to set up a meeting
with their MLA to discuss their ongoing concerns with the state of health care, the status of their collective
bargaining process and the impact this is having on the quality of health care services. Mr. Elhard has not
made himself available to his constituents so they are now determined to share their concerns with the public.

“Local health care providers are concerned about the quality of care they can provide, and the quality of
health care services citizens are receiving, in the Cypress Hills area, as well as province-wide,” said SEIU-West
President Barbara Cape. “At the bargaining table, the Union has been attempting for years to have SAHO and
the SaskParty government recognize and attend to growing retention and recruitment issues that are
impacting health care. Instead of addressing these issues, SAHO has now walked away from the bargaining
table twice. On April 12, we asked the Minister of Health to give this his immediate attention, and
unfortunately he appears to be ignoring us, just as MLA Wayne Elhard is ignoring his constituents who work in
health care,” Cape stated.

“We want the public to know that shortages of staff will only increase if the SaskParty government remains
idle. Our members will move and work in Alberta, or they may decide to take jobs outside the health care
sector if they continue to be ignored or treated unfairly by SAHO and the Brad Wall government,” Cape added.
“How fair is it when some health care providers are reimbursed in full for their professional and licensing fees
but our members receive only a portion of those fees based on 2006 rates? How fair is it that some health
care providers receive evening and weekend shift premiums that are more than double what our members
receive for working those same shifts? And, how fair is it when our members are paid lower mileage rates
than other health care providers while working side-by-side in the same locations? This is simply unfair no
matter how you look at it.”

SEIU-West represents approximately eleven thousand (11,000) health care providers working as special care
aides, licensed practical nurses, diagnostic and therapeutic technologists, food services workers, laundry,
housekeeping and activity personnel, maintenance, sterile processing workers, operating room technologists,
maintenance personnel, and administrative and clerical staff, among others in the provincial health care
system. In total, there are twenty-five thousand (25,000) health care providers, members of SEIU-West,
CUPE and SGEU who are without a collective agreement in Saskatchewan, and who work hard each day to
deliver quality health care services to the Saskatchewan residents.

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For a downloadable version of this release, click on the following link:  Media Release April 22, 2010

* NOTE: The SEIU-West information picket will be held on Friday, April 23
beginning at 4:00 p.m. at the Cypress Hills Constituency office, 401 Redcoat Drive in Eastend.