Premier delivers ‘message of gratitude’ to nurses in wake of tentative contract

The premier had a private chat with nurses attending their union’s annual general meeting Tuesday, a week after they avoided labour strife by signing a tentative contract.

The Manitoba Nurses Union announced last week on social media that they’d negotiated a tentative deal “in record time.”

While Premier Wab Kinew’s appearance at the annual general meeting was closed to the media, he later told reporters: “I’m very happy that we have a tentative agreement with the nurses.”

“I had a message of gratitude and thanks for the nurses who’ve been stepping up so many times and who’ve gone above and beyond,” Kinew said.

The 12,000 nurses last ratified a seven-year deal with their employer in late 2021, after being without a contract for four years, during which time the then-Tory government imposed a civil service wage freeze.

The current contract — which expired March 31 — included wide-ranging improvements for all nurses, such as retroactive wage increases and general salary increases ranging from 1.25 per cent in 2017 to two per cent in 2023.

Kinew wouldn’t say what’s in the new tentative deal out of respect for nurses who aren’t expected to hear details until Wednesday.

The MNU also declined to comment ahead of the agreement being shared with its members.

The vote will take place May 16 and 17.

Union president Darlene Jackson said earlier this year that nurses wanted more than money. She also said mandatory overtime, burnout and a lack of work-life balance were driving nurses out of the public sector, to work for private agencies, and those who remained on the front lines were stretched even thinner.

The last time they were at the bargaining table in 2020 and 2021, respect was sorely lacking, the union said in social media posts.

This time, the nurses said they demanded respect, as well as a greater understanding of the issues, including staffing shortages, heavy workloads, the need for mental health supports and improvements for safety and addressing violence in workplace.

Kinew said Tuesday his government is listening to the issues nurses have raised, and pointed to townhall meetings he and Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara have held for health staff throughout the province.

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“We’re optimistic that having a tentative agreement is an important step towards being able to repair the working conditions, the relationship with those on the front lines, and listening is a really, really important part of that,” Kinew told reporters.

He said changing the workplace culture is essential and his government has met with health organization leaders who are onboard with it.

“There’s tons of big things we want to do in the future around making the workplace better, reducing and ending mandatory over time in the future, and having a path towards safer nurse-to-patient ratios in all aspects of our health care system,” the premier said.

“I think, first and foremost, we’ve got to listen and we’ve got to show the flexibility to have a good working relationship with nurses.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

After 20 years of reporting on the growing diversity of people calling Manitoba home, Carol moved to the legislature bureau in early 2020.

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