Last year, SEIU created a survey for members about climate change and the impact on your lives.
Pinned
June is National Indigenous Peoples Month. This is a time to honour the rich history, resilience, and diversity of First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. It is an opportunity to reflect on historical and current injustices and commit to true reconciliation in Canada.
The First Nations, Métis and Inuit Committee would like to share some events and resources with you and encourage you to participate in events in your area.
SEIU-West is hosting our first Asian Pacific Islander Summit in Saskatoon on September 24-26, 2026 — an event to bring together workers from across Canada and the U.S.
Being an API member in Canada or the U.S can sometimes feel isolating. You might not have seen yourself in leadership. You may not have always felt seen or understood. But you can find a home with us. We believe in you. We see you. And most importantly, you belong.
Welcome home.
There is currently a vacancy on the SEIU-West Executive Board for members that work for the Community Based Organizations Sector.
You may have noticed there hasn't been an announcement about bbqs for the summer yet.
The SEIU-West First Nations, Métis and Inuit Committee (FNMIC) is hosting a contest to design an image for orange shirts that the committee provides yearly to members. Submit your design to enter to win a $100 Co-op gift card.
It’s Continuing Care Assistant (CCA) Day! 
Continuing Care Assistants (CCAs) provide personal care to clients, patients, and residents to support their physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual needs so they can function at an optimum level during their day.
And to celebrate CCA Day we’re shining the spotlight on Stephanie who works at a long-term care home.
As a CCA who works more nights and evenings, her day typically includes working tirelessly to ensure the residents are comfortable, safe and taken care of through the night.
Stephanie also gets a number of residents up to start their day (a minimum of four) so she is the first person they get to see.
Stephanie finds her work highly rewarding and is comforted in knowing: “I can make a difference every shift I work by seeing the progress in our residents. Comforting a young resident during hard times, and knowing that they will come to me next time they have a problem is satisfying.”
Stephanie goes above and beyond each and every day for the residents.
We are proud to celebrate our CCAs who are an energetic part of our SEIU-West family of nursing and health care heroes every day of the year.
It’s National Nursing Week! 
And to celebrate National Nursing Week, we’re shining the spotlight on Patricia. Patricia is a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) at Lanigan Union Hospital.
Since receiving her LPN diploma a mere 26 years ago, Patricia has forged an impressive career.
She’s kept up her certification and expanded her knowledge by attending many workshops, in-services, and reading many career-relevant articles.
Patricia’s day involves all duties related to caring for long-term care residents, as well as assisting with acute care, and emergency room patients.
As hard as her job may be some days, Patricia enjoys the relationship-based nursing aspects of her work.
Patricia recalls an event that a smile to her face:
“Actually it was a fall incident. I heard a noise coming from a resident's room. I went to check it out. There he was, sitting on the floor, laughing. Trying not to immediately laugh myself, I asked "What happened?" He said "You won't believe it, but I was dreaming and I slipped right out of my recliner, and here I sit!" He had been sitting in his recliner, with a pillow underneath his legs, and the recliner just dumped him right onto the floor, landing his bottom right onto the pillow.
I asked if he was okay, stifling the impending giggles, and he said "Well, sure hun, but you do NOT want to know what this old guy was dreaming about!" We then were literally in stitches....lol. (My partner and I helped him up and he had not one scratch on him.)”
We all depend on LPNs to take care of us and we would like to give special thanks to them for holding strong on the front line during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We are proud to celebrate our CCAs and LPNs who are a vibrant part of our SEIU-West family of nursing and health care heroes every day of the year.
Dear Honourable Premier Moe,
I am unsure if you are aware that CCAs in long term care, in many facilities, are working everyday with staff shortages, some are planned and some are unplanned. CCAs play an important role in providing quality of life to our seniors who are residents.
We provide personal care (this includes getting people up, bathing residents, personal hygiene needs, feeding assists & so many other care tasks) and most of the time we are rushed to do so, not because we want to get it done quickly, but because our help is continuously needed by others in wait.
In some circumstances, we are unable to attend to all of our residents. Did you know that we have CCAs who are required to work alone (for portions of a shift) to provide care in some instances? This is unsafe when it comes to Transfer, Lift and Reposition of residents. We also work alone on our night shifts. This is unacceptable! For some reason, the SHA has approved this.
How come we are alone while having the responsibility to take care of others? What if something happens to us, who helps us? Who helps those people if no one knows something happened to us? What if we can’t call for help in some kind of emergency situation? Unpredictability is always an ongoing concern in our line of work; some residents become agitated and can become violent. This is not a “Zero tolerance” workplace for hazards that have the potential to occur. Where is the OH and S priority and why is there no oversight to ensure that safe care is the priority?
You should also know that we now have cooking and cleaning added to our job duties. This is not because we have spare time to do these extra duties. And we have never received a pay grade upgrade for the added duties. This is simply so that the employer can eliminate the jobs that previously provided support in the care environment...and it was done to save money.
The health facility planning involved our positions providing personal care, and we are expected to cook the food ”restaurant style” with multiple different kinds of meals for people if they do not wish to eat the meal selected for us to cook and serve to the whole house. We also are responsible to take into account the different diets and textures; as well we are expected to provide at a temperature regulated rate. This is beyond stressful and not always realistic but that's just how that goes.
We need higher wages and we need more staff. We need to make sure transfers & lifts are always involving two persons. You need to fund long term care like you care about our seniors who are residents and bring more staff on the floor to improve their quality of life. We also need our support staff positions returned so that we have cooks, food service workers and environmental services workers. We are over-worked and underpaid; our residents need more time spent with them, not less. We need you to fix our underfunding crisis.
Finally, we have had no contract for 4 years - it's time to use your authority to ensure that we receive a fair offer from SAHO so that we can get an increase from our 2016 rates of pay.
Make this a priority. Our residents and my co-workers cannot wait any longer.
Respectfully,
Brett Berger
John is a recreational worker at a long-term care facility and another one of our SEIU-West Front Line Heroes. 
Providing fun activities during a pandemic is not easy but John is offering some advice from his Extendicare headquarters: “Keep on smiling and let your love shine through.”
John loves to engage with the residents and he said “I love to know that I am part of the reason that they are smiling”.
John also helps residents with their emotional, social, spiritual and physical aspects of their lives by providing recreation programs.
One of John’s favourite memories was when they raised money for Telemiracle in their workplace and appeared on TV to make their donation on behalf of the long-term care home and resident council.
The government of Saskatchewan recently made temporary changes to The Pension Benefits Regulations, 1993 that places a freeze on transfers or payments out of defined benefit plans.
For Immediate Release, May 7, 2020
(SASKATCHEWAN) The unions representing health care providers in Saskatchewan are calling for the Premier to follow in the footsteps of almost every other jurisdiction in Canada and provide a wage top-up for health care workers.
The Health Care Provider Unions have discussed strategies for fair and equitable recognition pay for members of the health care team who are demonstrating dedicated service during COVID19 which involves personal risk and sacrifice. This letter was sent to Premier Moe by the Unions today.
May 4, 2020
Honourable Scott Moe
Premier of Saskatchewan
226 Legislative Building
Regina, Saskatchewan
CANADA S4S 0B3
Dear Mr. Premier,
We write to you on behalf of the front line health care providers who have been at the forefront of the work being done to flatten the curve of infection with the COVID-19 pandemic. They have displayed an incredible amount of professionalism and courage in continuing the day to day work in this battle that benefits all Saskatchewan residents. Many have called them ‘heroes’, but we know they are heroes every day, not only during this pandemic.
In Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, provincial governments have deemed additional pay for those working in acute care, long term care, personal care homes, community and home care. For the anxiety and stress; for the personal sacrifice they make daily to reduce the risk of COVID at work and home; for the extra work and long, hot hours to ensure the safety of our patients, clients, residents and staff; for the lack of information and the ever changing policy directives; for being there to care, to serve, when visitors and family are not able. There is an incredibly diverse group of people who are keeping health care running and ensuring that we are not overwhelmed by the pandemic.
Mr. Premier, you have acknowledged these health care providers in your provincial address. Today we ask you to step forward to lead again. As we reopen the province, we cannot ignore the work that has happened, and continues to happen to keep the province safe. For all health care providers, we ask that you acknowledge this incredible team with ‘recognition pay’ or a wage top up.
- Medical and Diagnostic Technologists and assistants complete tests that identify not only COVID-19 but other diseases and pathogens that are still affecting our population: cancer, HIV, MRI, CT, and seasonal flu are among their tests.
- Licensed Practical Nurses provide dressing changes, dispense medications, work in operating rooms and emergency rooms, long-term care and home care to provide compassionate hands-on skilled care to our patients, clients and residents.
- Continuing Care Assistants work in acute care, long term care, and home care providing hands on services like dressing, bathing, medications, lifting and repositioning with care and compassion.
- Recreation and Physical Therapy who continually work to lift up the spirits of residents and give them some much needed distraction as well as something to look forward to each day.
- Security, maintenance, tradespeople and Information Technologists continue to keep our facilities running efficiently, to set up COVID units in hospitals across the province and keeping staff and patients safe.
- Food services prepare and provide nutritious meals to patients, long-term care residents and homecare recipients.
- Environmental services staff perform enhanced cleaning to ensure that our facilities do not harbor and are not a vector for transmission of any virus.
- Administration staff keep every part of the health system connected and communicating which is critically important at this time – this includes ward and department support, payroll, finance, health information, and schedulers who work in acute care, long-term care, home care, community care and primary care to ensure that our facilities are staffed and paid properly to provide the skilled professional care that is key to all health care services.
- Of particular note are those working in supply chain, materials management, and sterile processing who ensure that we have the health care materials and resources, such as Personal Protective Equipment and supplies, necessary to keep us all safe and to provide quality healthcare that Saskatchewan residents have come to expect.
It is with pride we acknowledge that there are over 42,000 front line staff who are part of the ‘health care team’…across CUPE, SGEU, SEIU-West, SUN, and HSAS. We are very proud of the work that front line health care workers perform every day and believe they are heroes not only during this pandemic, but every day of the year.
On behalf of these caring health providers, we ask that you take a moment to acknowledge the varied work that is being performed under some incredibly tense and stressful circumstances. They go into work every day, not sure if they will come into contact with COVID-19 or if they will take it home with them to their families. Yet, they continue to show up and lead our health care system. They do this for their patients, clients and residents. We believe their efforts and commitment are worthy of recognition, don’t you?
We look forward to your earliest reply.
|
Barbara Cape |
Tracey Sauer |
Sandra Seitz |
Cc: Jim Reiter, Minister of Health
Warren Keading, Minister of Rural and Remote Health
Scott Livingstone, CEO Saskatchewan Health authority
For Immediate Release, May 5, 2020
Saskatoon – Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) Week has significant meaning for the members and leaders of SEIU-West in 2020.
Date: May 5, 2020
Greetings Sisters and Brothers,
As you are no doubt aware, due to the State of Emergency declared by the provincial government on or about March 17, 2020, our bargaining dates for the weeks of April 6 and 14 were cancelled. The focus for the Employer side was on managing the pandemic planning and the priority for the Union was providing support and assurance for our front line members.
SEIU-West recognizes Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) Week from May 3-9 and Mental Health Week from May 4-10, two areas of particular importance as we face the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s understandable that many of us are struggling with our mental health these days – the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted our daily lives and caused global grief and anxiety amongst our communities – so SEIU-West has developed this Mental Health Support During COVID-19 page in order to reassure you that you’re not alone, and that there are many resources that can help you during this challenging time.
On our Mental Health page, you’ll find resources in support of maintaining physical distancing while still being social (hello, Zoom!), mutual aid groups, Employee Family Assistance Program (EFAP) information, as well as many free 24/7 call lines and websites available to those wanting mental health support. For example, the Canadian Mental Health Association now has a Saskatchewan-wide wellness support line for each community – visit this link for more information.
We have also launched our OH&S resources page – on this page, you’ll find valuable information on your rights at work, a descriptive step-by-step guide on your right to refuse, workload, Worker Safety Committee information, and Occupational Health Committee (OHC) information. On our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page, you’ll also find information about personal protective equipment (PPE) and other safety-related questions.
President Barb Cape has been sharing important safety information as well – check out her a sample of her President’s Message videos below:
Statistics Canada has recently shared a survey in relation to COVID-19 and your mental health – we encourage you to participate here.
The two recognition weeks of Mental Health Week and OH&S week go hand in hand because we know that mental health is an OH&S issue. Remember, if you need support in these areas, be sure to contact our Member Resource Centre at 1.888.999.7348 ext. 2298 or use the contact form.