A strike by Group Health Centre employees represented by CUPE Local 894 has been put on hold after union representatives reached a tentative agreement with the employer on Thursday.
The union had planned to go on strike today before the tentative deal was reached.
CUPE Local 894 says the tentative agreement reached with GHC will be voted on by union members Monday.
CUPE Local 894 president Tracy Fabbricino told SooToday on Friday that if the tentative deal is turned down its unionized GHC workers will be on the picket line outside the main GHC location at 240 McNabb St. at 8 a.m Tuesday, July 30.
Members of CUPE Local 894 at GHC include over 220 various health care and clerical support workers such as registered practical nurses, social workers, physiotherapists and others.
“It’s about equity of pay,” said Tracy Fabbricino, CUPE Local 894 president in a phone interview with SooToday on Friday.
“We’re paid less than our competitors. There’s also a lot less long-term employees at the moment. There seems to be a bit of a turnover so we’d like to get that retention and the reason we don’t have it is wages right now. People are leaving to go to the hospital or MyHealth where they get paid a little bit more so we want to lessen that gap so we can retain our workers,” Fabbricino said.
As a result of some workers leaving, the union states in a release that remaining members of Local 894 at GHC “are overworked, stressed, and burned out. Our workloads have increased but our pay hasn’t.”
“In the event of a labour disruption at Group Health Centre, we want to assure our patients and community that we have a plan in place to continue providing health care services, minimizing disruptions in care as best as we can,” says a news release issued by GHC Monday.
GHC wrote that the most recent agreement - prior to Thursday’s tentative deal - included a 9.5 per cent wage increase over a 3-year period but was not accepted by union members.
“We are disappointed to be in this situation, and frustrated for our patients whose access to primary care may once again be impacted,” the GHC’s Monday release stated.
GHC de-rostered 3,000 patients in 2023 and another 10,000 in 2024 because of ongoing primary care provider recruitment and retention.