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If you are member of the media and would like to speak to us for an upcoming article or news item, please contact Christine Miller in Communications by email [email protected] or by phone at 306.652.1011 ext. 8733
For Immediate Release, April 1, 2020
Saskatoon – SEIU-West leaders and members know that our Saskatchewan Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) will be receiving a 1.8% salary increase today.
For Immediate Release, March 25, 2020
Saskatoon – The front line health care providers of SEIU-West are not surprised with the recent media reports about the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) and Ministry of Health ‘planning challenges’ in dealing with COVID-19.
For Immediate Release - February 13, 2020
Saskatoon – SEIU-West members and their supporters were sharing information with the public outside of the Hilton Garden Inn in Saskatoon this morning. This is where the annual Partners for Life Breakfast was being hosted by Canadian Blood Services (CBS). This event is intended as a recruitment effort to engage with donors.
Saskatoon – SEIU-West members who work for Canadian Blood Services (CBS) will be sharing information with the early risers of Saskatoon during an information picket along the sidewalks outside the Hilton Garden Inn on Thursday February 13, 2020.
For Immediate Release - February 7, 2020
Saskatchewan people take pride in our role as the pioneers of Medicare. But the public health care system we take for granted has reached a critical point.
Our population is growing and aging, with increasingly complex care needs. Our governments have not made the necessary investments to serve these growing needs. Federal health transfers have not kept pace, and provincial funding remains driven by the ongoing narrative of a tight fiscal budget. 
This growing imbalance between needs and funding has become critically apparent on the front lines, in the form of understaffing.
As a quick fix for budget pressures, health managers are routinely leaving positions vacant when staff quit or retire, or not replacing staff who are on leave. They also refuse to add baseline staff to units whose numbers and needs have increased. The result: crushing workloads that put the health and safety of patients, clients, residents and health care workers at risk.
Urgent action is needed to fix this crisis. And the opportunity and responsibility to act belongs to all of us.
For Immediate Release - December 13, 2019
Saskatoon – SEIU-West health care providers voted on a job action mandate Wednesday, December 11, 2019. An overwhelming majority agreed to authorize the SEIU-West bargaining committee to use any and all job actions needed to get a fair contract.
For Immediate Release - November 20, 2019
Regina – SEIU-West members will be on hand for question period today at the Saskatchewan Provincial Legislature to hear responses from the SaskParty government on health care questions from the New Democratic Party of Saskatchewan.
For Immediate Release - November 7, 2019
Moose Jaw – SEIU-West members were talking to the public outside of Moose Jaw City Hall today to discuss the day to day challenges they face in the health care sector.
For Immediate Release - November 6, 2019
Moose Jaw – SEIU-West members and their supporters will be sharing information with the public at Moose Jaw City Hall on November 7, 2019.
For immediate release – November 6, 2019
Today, on CBO Worker Appreciation Day, SGEU, SEIU-West and CUPE thank the thousands of people who work at Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) across the province for the vital services they provide to Saskatchewan people in need. The three unions also call on the provincial government to commit to providing multi-year funding for Saskatchewan CBOs.
For Immediate Release - October 31, 2019
Saskatoon – Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe received an open letter today from the Service Employees International Union-West (SEIU-West), urging him to stand up for Saskatchewan health care providers. Based on statements Mr. Moe used in his recent “New Deal with Canada” letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and in the October 23rd Throne Speech, SEIU-West called on him to improve the current state of health care with “a New Deal with Health Providers”.
The open letter highlights critical short-staffing issues in Saskatchewan’s health sector, including at Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospital, described in the letter as “the province’s major tertiary care centre, and a critical resource for the adjacent Children’s Hospital.” The letter asks how Moe’s government proposes “to recruit and retain health providers to work in understaffed facilities that are experiencing shockingly high rates of workplace injury and violence.”
“The Throne Speech talks about investing in public services to provide a better life for Saskatchewan people,” Cape added. “We urge the Premier to keep this promise, by investing in the people who provide the vast majority of front-line care.”
“Due to crushing workloads, ever increasing complex care, and less staff to work, the health care system is set to fail,” continued Cape. “We have asked the public we serve to magnify our calls for safety in the care environment. We need to stop the cycle of understaffed/overworked/injured by creating a health care work environment that attracts people to a health care career. We challenge our Premier to take the initial steps and to respond to our call for real human resource planning.”
SEIU-West’s 12,000 health care providers have been without a contract since March 31, 2017. In spring 2019, SEIU-West members strongly rejected the offer of 0%/0%/1%/2%/2% the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO) proposed.
“SAHO is in constant communication with the government during bargaining,” said SEIU-West President Barb Cape, the letter’s author. “No matter what initiatives we’ve brought to the table, SAHO maintains the government’s mandate of rollbacks - two years of zero wage increases and a contract that doesn’t even cover the cost of living. Our members are clear that this is unacceptable. They know the Premier and other members of the legislature gave themselves a 5.8% pay increase over the last two years. They know the base salary for Saskatchewan MLAs has increased by over 50% since the Saskatchewan Party first formed government in 2007. All our members want is a Collective Agreement that lets them afford to work safely in health care.”
SEIU-West represents over 13,000 people across Saskatchewan. They include people who work in health care, education, municipalities, community-based organizations, retirement homes and other sectors. They are joined by one colour – purple – and one union – SEIU-West. Purple works in our communities! Visit PurpleWorks.ca to find out more about SEIU-West members.
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For more information, contact:
Jolomi Gagar, Project Coordinator
Phone: 306-652-1011 ext. 2225