Votes show unions differ on tentative agreement with SAHO

Three unions representing health-sector workers in the province have differing views of a tentative agreement reached in February with the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO).

In recent ratification votes, members of CUPE Local 5430 and the SGEU Health Providers unions accepted the deal.

In a release posted on the CUPE 5430 website, the union revealed that 65 per cent of its members voted in favour of the agreement. A release on the SGEU Health Providers website said its members had voted to accept the deal, but didn’t indicate the level of support.

But the members of SEIU-West rejected the deal.

“The rejection of the tentative agreement gives us a clear direction and mandate to take back to the table and let SHA (the Saskatchewan Health Authority) and the Government of Saskatchewan know that this offer doesn’t even come close to what is a fair level of compensation for our members,” SEIU-West president Barbara Cape said in a statement on the union’s website.

Bargaining for a new collective bargaining agreement began in May of 2017.

In statements issued Feb. 11 of this year by the three unions, the bargaining committees rejected what they called “SAHO’s bully tactics.” The unions pointed out that SAHO wasn’t offering any wage increases for the first two years of the agreement, with increases of one per cent in 2020 and two per cent in 2022.

On Feb. 25, the three unions issued releases saying a deal had been reached.

“The parties reached a tentative agreement on each of our collective agreements, including issues common to all three unions and a wage settlement,” said the joint release, which didn’t offer any details.

The three unions represent more than 26,000 health-sector workers in Saskatchewan.