July 16, 2026
Dear Members,
SAHO representatives were scheduled to meet to bargain on July 6-10 in Saskatoon.
However, SAHO did not meet with the Unions until Friday, July 10. During that week they did have time to post an aggressively misleading bargaining update on their website.
Your HPU bargaining teams met together and separately throughout the week, working on proposals, discussing strategy, and seeking legal advice about SAHO’s behaviour.
Finally, on Friday, July 10, SAHO presented a detailed package of proposals to each healthcare provider union (HPU) separately, and demanded huge changes be made to the agreed-upon bargaining process, which had the appearance of a divide-and-conquer strategy.
They offered the HPUs additional bargaining dates in July and August. However, just four days later, SAHO leadership tried to change or back away from what they had offered. They would no longer be available for some of the dates they had promised, claiming they needed more “time to respond” and that this “pace” of bargaining “is unreasonable”.
SAHO, under pressure from the SHA and the government, is clearly trying to divide the HPUs in order to achieve their “key priority” of making it easier for the SHA to move work and workers.As the HPUs have mentioned in previous bargaining updates, temporary movement of workers across HPU boundaries to meet patient needs is already occurring, in collaboration with the HPUs. SAHO has never clearly explained why these current collaborative processes are not good enough.
SEIU-West believes that this is extremely unfair to the HPUs and to SEIU-West in particular. While we will continue to work to bargain a fair agreement for you, we are considering our options. The situation is complex and evolving rapidly. Stay tuned for further updates once we have more clarity.
If you have collective agreement questions or issues, contact the Member Resource Center at 1-888-999-7348 ext 1, email [email protected], or complete the Contact Us form on our website, www.seiuwest.ca.
In Solidarity on behalf of the SEIU-West Bargaining Committee,
Lisa Zunti
President
SEIU-West
Click here for a printable version of this bargaining update.