Date: November 23, 2023
Sisters, Brothers and Friends,
Your SEIU-West Bargaining Committee met with the SAHO Bargaining Committee on November 21 & 22, 2023. The parties continued the review of each other’s proposals and asked clarification questions around proposals that were unclear.
Historically, since the implementation of Joint Job Evaluation the parties have bargained in two stages. First, each of the provider unions bargain their individual proposals specific to their Collective Agreement. Once individual bargaining is finished, the Employer and the provider unions (SEIU-West/CUPE/SGEU) meet with SAHO and the Employers at a common table to bargain proposals which have a monetary component that, either directly or indirectly, has an identical effect on all three healthcare provider unions. In this round of bargaining there is a third stage - transition proposals, which are proposals to address issues that have arisen as a result of the creation of the Saskatchewan Health Authority.
SAHO doesn’t agree with this assessment. SAHO seems to believe that proposals that have identical language are common proposals, even if they do not have an identical effect but are aimed at modifying individual Collective Agreements. SAHO is attempting to introduce identical language in each Collective Agreement and eliminate or replace over 70 years of precedent setting language in SEIU Collective Agreements in Saskatchewan. The SAHO proposals will act to disregard precedents set by winning Labour Relations Board decisions and arbitration decisions, eliminate union jurisdictions, demand concessions in every aspect of our work and de-identify SEIU-West in our own Collective Agreement.
The SAHO proposals demand the Employers be able to contract in outside workers as well as contract out our work to third party outsiders, introduce significant changes to the posting and layoff procedures, which will reduce SEIU-West members’ rights, introduce significant rollbacks to our call-in process by removing our offer and accept procedure, and demand that managers have the unilateral ability to assign/mandate you to work, even if the work is not what you normally do and the workplace is not where you normally work. The only thing missing is the demand that workers must respond to the Employer’s every direction or notion with the phrase “yes boss, right away”.
This will be a challenging round of bargaining. We have additional dates to meet scheduled on December 19 and 20, 2023.
If you have collective agreement questions or issues, contact the Member Resource Center at 1-888999-7348 Ext 2298 or [email protected].
In Solidarity on behalf of the SEIU-West Bargaining Committee,
Barbara Cape
President
SEIU-West
Your SEIU-West SAHO Provincial Bargaining Committee:
CHR: Janice Platzke (SEIU-West Treasurer) • FHHR: Brenda Berry, Barbara Bubyn • HHR: Colleen Denniss • SHR: Rhonda Bzdel, Chris Clark, Jeanne Javinal, Carla Saworski, Charlene Sarafin • Extendicare: Kevin Martin • Staff: Bob Laurie (Dir. of Bargaining and Contract Enforcement), Russell Doell (Deputy Dir. of Bargaining and Contract Enforcement • President Barbara Cape
Click here for a printable copy of this Bargaining Bulletin.