DARTMOUTH – Nova Scotia’s nurses union ramped up their battle against Halifax’s Capital Health with an advertising campaign Friday as a potential strike looms.
Part of the “ad campaign” includes a nurse saying, “Halifax hospitals are not replacing nurses who are off sick, leaving units short-staffed and Stephen McNeil’s government is letting them get away with it.”
The Nova Scotia Government Employees Union (NSGEU) began running the campaign to support nurses in contract negotiations with Capital Health. The union says patient safety is first in this round of collective bargaining.
“We’re heading into conciliation with our nurses on Monday, Tuesday-17th and 18th of March,” said Joan Jessome, the president of the NSGEU.
“We’ve had nine days at the table with little to no bargaining,” she said.
“We have issues that are very, very important to nurses to patient safety and we have no choice now, but to take the fight to the public.”
Jessome is asking the public to contact their MLAs to support nurses. A recent poll, commissioned by the union, found that 65 per cent of Nova Scotians agree with mandated nurse-patient ratios. Only 20 per cent agree with the provincial government’s claim that they are unnecessary and too costly.
The nurses say there are other issues.
Premier Stephen McNeil said Thursday he’s disappointed with the union’s approach.
“It’s unfortunate that there is so much negotiation going on by the president of NSGEU in public but we’re going to…continue to allow the process to happen,” said McNeil.
Jessome said McNeil is no stranger to negotiating in public.
“Didn’t he just do that with the home support workers? He did exactly that. He brought legislation in, talked about wages, threatened them that they weren’t going to get it – that’s blackmail bargaining,” said Jessome.
McNeil says the government faces challenges and is determined to cut Nova Scotia’s deficit. Jessome says the union just wants fair bargaining.
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