Michelle Thompson, Nova Scotia’s health and wellness minister, is warning of a potential strike by more than 9,000 health-care workers. (Communications Nova Scotia)

Nova Scotia’s health minister is warning the province’s health authorities to prepare for a possible strike by more than 9,000 health-care workers.

Michelle Thompson wrote a letter to the CEOs of the Nova Scotia Health Authority and the IWK Health Centre. She said the province is committed to reaching a settlement. 

Thompson said talks have been difficult but are continuing with the help of a conciliator.

“Each negotiated settlement and wage and benefit investment we have made has resulted in higher wages,” she wrote in the letter, released Tuesday by her department. 

“Once again significant wage increases are on the table. At the same time, we have to be mindful of the taxpayer and make sure that we only commit to what is affordable to taxpayers, now and into the future.”

The employees are represented by three different unions – the NSGEU, CUPE and Unifor. The unions are negotiating as one body under a council of health-care unions.

Members represent more than 170 occupations in the health-care system – including those working in diagnostic imaging and laboratory, mental health and addictions, cancer therapy, paramedics, and community health.

The unions say many employees are now the lowest paid in Atlantic Canada and are struggling with severe staffing shortages.

Thompson said in the letter that the government is focused on “tough but fair” bargaining. She said they want an agreement without a strike, but that the province’s finances are stretched. 

“The reality is that with a staggering provincial deficit, there is just no more to offer. We simply can’t sweeten the offer because the taxpayer is already stretched to their limit.”

In late July, Nova Scotia’s Finance Minister Allan MacMaster reported the province recorded a $143-million surplus on surging revenues. He said Nova Scotia brought in $1 billion more than expected last year.

This round of contract negotiations does not include doctors or nurses.

Queens General Hospital. Photo Ed Halverson

The Government of Nova Scotia announced several initiatives to reduce wait times and improve emergency care at hospitals across the province.

At a press conference Monday, Health and Wellness Minister Michelle Thompson said the initiative focuses on two areas: improving emergency room care and safety and moving lower acuity patients away from the emergency room to appropriate health providers.

Several actions announced to get patients in most urgent need faster care include:
— having teams led by doctors focus on getting patients out of ambulances and into the emergency department faster
— assigning physician assistants and nurse practitioners to provide care in emergency departments
— adding care providers and patient advocates to support patients in waiting rooms
— making virtual care available to more patients with less urgent needs
— providing healthcare teams with real-time data on where beds are available across the system and what tests or other actions are needed to get patients well and home more quickly; this will free up beds for others.

Health officials are aiming to redirect patients with less severe or immediate health concerns away from emergency departments.

The actions being taken to give people more places to receive care, reducing pressure on emergency care, include:
–support for new and existing collaborative family medicine practices so they can see more patients
— expanding services in more pharmacies
— adding hours for virtual care appointments and enabling out-of-province doctors who are licensed here to offer virtual care
— providing more mobile primary care, mobile respiratory care clinics and urgent treatment centres
— making available a new phone app, known as a digital front door, that will help people find the right services for their needs and where they’re offered.

Some of those actions such as adding care providers and patient advocates to patient waiting rooms will be implemented almost immediately while others will be phased in as resources and capacity become available.

While the new actions include many new supports for patients and caregivers there was little talk about how to keep healthcare workers from leaving those jobs.

Minister Thompson says the newly announced initiatives will make for a better work environment and her department is still listening to front-line workers.

“Nova Scotia Health has also started stay interviews about what are the things that support people in staying and we do hear suggestions directly from frontline workers about different initiatives that would help them stay,” said Thompson. “So those are the things that are undertaken, again, we know there’s more to do and we are committed to working with health care providers to support their environment.”

The Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU) represents many of the people working in healthcare in the province.

In a statement issued after the announcement the union’ 1^st Vice President Hugh Gillis says one of the key issues members have outlined is the inability to retain skilled, experienced nursing staff in the ED.

“Today’s announcement does not address that concern,” said Gillis, “The employer must provide incentives that will allow them to effectively keep experienced health care professionals in areas of high turnover and specialized need, such as the emergency department.”

Gillis says his members are glad to see some of the 59 suggestions they provided to government were included in the announcement but there is still more to do.

Government officials say they are open to any good ideas that will improve healthcare for Nova Scotians and will continue to listen.

Despite the struggles facing emergency departments across the province, Minister Thompson says if people are in immediate need of medical attention they should go and get the treatment they need.

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SSRCE School Bus. Photo Ed Halverson

School support workers in the South Shore will vote today on a deal to end their nearly two- week long strike.

The tentative agreement was reached between South Shore Regional Centre of Education and Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union bargaining teams Tuesday with the help of a conciliator.

The union’s bargaining committee is recommending members accept the agreement when they vote on the deal later today.

If the agreement is ratified the workers could be off the picket lines and back into schools Thursday.

The proposed deal comes the same day union members from the Annapolis Valley voted by 92.3 per cent to accept their new tentative agreement.

According to a release from the NSGEU, Annapolis Valley School Support workers will be leveled up to the highest rates of pay for their positions in Nova Scotia during the life of this collective agreement, which extends from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2024.

Getting wage parity for workers in the same jobs across Nova Scotia was the goal of walkouts held in the Valley and South Shore in the past two weeks.

NSGEU President Sandra Mullen was pleased the provincial government let the bargaining process play out.

“After more than a decade of living with the austerity legacy of past-Premier Stephen McNeil, we are finally able to see that the collective bargaining process works, when it is allowed to do so,” said President Mullen, “The current government not only allowed the bargaining process to unfold as it should – without legislative interference tipping the scales – but they have agreed to the principle of parity and fairness for these workers, and that is something that should be credited.”

No details of the proposed agreement between the South Shore Regional Centre for Education and its workers will be released until the membership has the opportunity to see and vote on the deal today.

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Striking workers walk a picket line in Liverpool. Photo Susan MacLeod

Striking school workers could be back on the job by Thursday.

After two days of bargaining a deal was reached between representatives of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU) and the Annapolis Valley Regional Centre for Education.

The union is recommending members take the offer but are not releasing details of the tentative agreement until workers see it first at their meeting tonight.

Workers from two school districts, the Annapolis Valley and South Shore have been on strike for over a week demanding workers doing the same job are paid the same wage regardless of where they live in the province.

NSGEU President Sandra Mullen says union members have done a good job bringing Nova Scotians to their side by explaining they’re looking for basic fairness.

In fact, when walking the line in Liverpool she spoke with five teenage boys who saw first-hand how school life is impacted by the workers absence.

“I said do you miss these folks being in the school and they said Oh my God, we’re on the line with these guys this is great, and yes we miss you because they don’t know how to do anything. They’re messing up the buzzers and they’re messing up. So, when you have five teenage boys missing the folks that support them in that school they know that these people are who support the students every day and so I mark that as pretty clear that folks know what’s going on and what it’s about,” said Mullen.

Representatives for workers and the South Shore Regional Centre for Education will return to the bargaining table today.

Because the strike from both unions was about getting wage parity across the province, it is safe to assume negotiators representing NSGEU Local 70 will be looking for the same deal the valley workers are voting on this evening.

If bargaining goes well, and members can arrange a vote, school support workers from both regions could be back on the job ahead of Remembrance Day, Friday.

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NSGEU President Sandra Mullen speaks to a striking working in Chester. Photo courtesy NSGEU

School support workers are a week into their strike with no end in sight.

The members of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU) Local 70 and 73 representing the South Shore and Annapolis Valley are striking to demand equal pay with their counterparts across the province.

NSGEU president Sandra Mullen says the pay scale for every other civil servant in Nova Scotia is the same regardless of where they live, and school workers should be no different.

“The wage for a nurse is the same no matter where they work and the MLAs. The base salary for an MLA is the same across this province whether they are in Metro, Sydney or Yarmouth or in between, it’s the same,” said Mullen.

Striking union members were in the Nova Scotia Legislature on Tuesday to allow MLAs to put a face on the workers on the picket line.

On the floor, NDP MLA Kendra Coombes asked Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development Becky Druhan why someone working in the minister’s own riding shouldn’t be paid the same as someone from the city.

The minister replied her government supports parity for all workers across the province, but her department is not directly involved in negotiations.

“There seems to be a misconception across the table as to who exactly is party to the collective agreements that we have in place in education,” said Druhan. “I’d like to remind the members that the parties to our agreements in education are the Regions or the CSAP and the unions. Those are the parties who bargain these deals, those are the parties who are negotiating.”

Mullen isn’t buying it.

She says under the previous school board structure each board would set their own budget and work within it when bargaining wages.

Mullen says since the previous Liberal government under Stephen McNeil abolished the school boards and created the Regional Centres for Education, the money is funnelled from the department so there’s no reason not to set provincial standards for wages.

“So, I believe they’re just throwing it back on the Regional Centre for Education as the employer. Perhaps they are the employer but there’s no doubt in my mind that the decisions they make come from the Department of Education and Early Childhood Learning [Development],” said Mullen. “That is how we have seen pre-primary programs put in every school is because its provincial it’s the same. So, if we’re going to offer the same curriculum, the same programs in all of those schools, support, outreach programs, all of those things, there’s no reason why they can’t be paid the same.”

A conciliator has invited the Annapolis Valley Regional Centre for Education and NSGEU Local 73 back to the table for a meeting Friday.

No word yet on when the South Shore Regional Centre for Education and its union will return to negotiations.

Meanwhile, striking workers are resolved to stay out of schools and walking picket lines until they get equal pay for equal work.

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Striking school workers walk a picket line in Liverpool, N.S. October 25, 2022. Photo courtesy Susan MacLeod

Members of NSGEU Local 70 began their strike Tuesday morning carrying signs and waving at passing motorists as they marched along Bristol Avenue.

The union is bargaining with the South Shore Regional Centre for Education to ensure every member of the union is being paid the same for doing the same work no matter where they work in Nova Scotia.

Workers on the picket line were appreciative of drivers who honked as they passed.

One worker, who didn’t wish to be identified, said despite the support, the line is the last place anyone wanted to be.

“We were all wishing we were at work, for sure. I work with pre-primary, and I was certainly missing the kids and we saw some of them go by. Definitely, wishing we were at work, for sure, but feeling that it was time to take a stand.”

The Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union represents the 130 workers who walked off the job Tuesday.

NSGEU officials want the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development to ensure if a worker does a job in South Shore, they’re paid the same as anywhere else in the province.

It appears government has no intention of intervening in the negotiation process between the workers’ union and their employer, the regional centre for education.

In an email, Government of Nova Scotia spokesperson, Andrew Preeper wrote:

“The NSGEU and its members have identified wage parity across regional centres for education as a key priority. The employer proposed a way to achieve wage parity, including wage increases as well as a process to review positions to ensure compensation fairness and parity. The exact mechanism to achieve this would be discussed at the bargaining table. We respect the parties and the bargaining process and believe discussions with labour unions should happen at the bargaining table, not in public. 

Our ongoing hope is that employers can reach an agreement with their locals through the collective bargaining process.”

The worker on the picket line says they will settle for nothing less than equal pay with their counterparts across the province.

They warn these walkouts could be the first of many that will involve other school staff.

“We hear rumblings that the bus drivers are next, and the TAs in the South Shore will be in the new year. Because, down here, that the teaching assistants aren’t part of this union, but same issues is [sic] wage parity.”

In addition to the walk outs, NSGEU is taking their strike action online and asking people to fill out messages of support from their website and Facebook page.

Currently union locals in the Annapolis Valley and South Shore regions are on strike.

They could soon be joined by Local 74 in Tri-Counties who rejected their latest contract offer by 98 percent.

The NSGEU and local representatives have decided to hold off on that strike action until they see if an updated offer is coming from the employer in the next week.

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NSGEU workers in Annapolis Valley strike October 24, 2022. Photo Courtesy NSGEU

Workers at schools across the South Shore will be on strike Tuesday morning.

The South Shore Regional Center for Education issued a statement informing parents schools will remain open for grade primary to 12 students, but because Early Childhood Educators won’t be in the classroom the pre-primary program will not be offered.

Members of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union Local 70 including Early Childhood Educators; Outreach Workers, Student Support Workers, Office Administration Assistants; Clerks and IT Support Specialists voted with a 92 percent majority to reject the latest contract offer from the South Shore Regional Centre for Education.

They’re unhappy people who do the same jobs are paid differently depending on which Centre for Education they work for in the province.

Across Nova Scotia, each of the seven Regional Centres and the French school board negotiate their own contracts with their employees.

NSGEU president Sandra Mullen says it doesn’t make sense to have separate contracts with different rates of compensation when the money is coming from one source: the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.

“It’s one department and it should be the same wage across,” said Mullen. “ And you know, we have government on record saying they want to get there too. So, now’s the time.”

South Shore Regional Centre for Education Executive Director Paul Ash says the Regional Centre will do its best to get people into key positions to minimize the disruption.

“Obviously when you lose 160 individuals as a result of an impending strike action, we won’t have the same number of resources available but our first and primary goal is to focus on continuing to support the needs of our students,” said Ash.

He says since the days of the old school boards, each region has negotiated contracts with their own employees.

Ash believes a fair offer was made to the Local to stave off a strike and says steps are being prepared to provide parity across all school districts.

“There is a plan to conduct a comprehensive review of all the jobs within all the entities and then align that compensation across the province,” said Ash. “Unfortunately, we’re not at a point where that is happening right now.”

Of the seven regional centres, NSGEU represents five, including Tri-County, South Shore, Annapolis Valley, Chignecto-Central and Halifax.

NSGEU President Sandra Mullen (left) on the picket line with an Annapolis Valley worker October 24, 2022. Photo courtesy NSGEU

NSGEU President Mullen says she’d like to see the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development take a more prominent role in negotiations to ensure parity across all regions.

“They’re not sitting in the room when we negotiate, but I’m sure they’re behind the curtain,” said Mullen.

The South Shore is the second local to strike after NSGEU members in Annapolis Valley already walked off the job Monday.

Mullen says her members would rather be in school doing what they love instead of walking a picket line.

“That’s the heartbreaking part of all this. It is not the children or the school administrator they’re upset with. It is government,” said Mullen. “And it’s government who can make this right.”

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