WATCH: Mediation talks between four unions on how to merge nine district health authorities has ended without an agreement and will now head into arbitration. As Rebecca Lau reports, union leaders say the province’s contentious Bill 1 has now led to infighting within the unions.
HALIFAX – The fight over healthcare legislation in Nova Scotia continues to get more complex.
Now that a media blackout has been lifted, the Nova Scotia General Employees Union (NSGEU) says the Nova Scotia Nurses Union (NSNU) backed out of what they call an association model during mediation, which ended at midnight on Tuesday.
“We went into it in good faith, to try a bargaining association model, the NSNU stepped away from that even though they had committed to it many times publically and with their members,” said NSGEU president Joan Jessome.
Jessome said Unifor, CUPE and NSGEU were on board with the association model; the issue now moves to arbitration.
She said that means the NSNU will get Registered Nurses (RN) and Licenced Pratical Nurses (LPN) currently represented by the three other unions without the workers’ consent.
“It takes us out of the picture and assigns workers to other unions without them having a vote or any say in the matter. The employer has a say, they don’t,” Jessome said.
Jessome said that, while mediation did not get contentious or heated, the NSNU didn’t agree with the association model.
“We wanted to get a resolve to this,” she said.
“At the last minute, the NSNU backed off. We can’t have an association with only three unions. An association model was a fix to this. It was the right thing to do for all of us.”
Jessome defends the NSGEU, saying her main concern wasn’t about keeping the union alive but rather to keep the collective agreements, job security and other gains the union has negotiated for its members.
She also said the union has put forward a charter challenge to the attorney general of the province, asking the arbitrator whether he has the authority to hear the charter challenge during the arbitration process, which begins Tuesday. Arbitration will decide which union represents which worker category: nurses, technologists, clerical and support.
A decision on the charter challenge is expected this week, she said.
“Two of the main areas of the charter challenge is that at the end of the day, because an association model was not agreed to, then the workers should have a right to choose which union they belong to and not be sent there by an arbitrator under a piece of legislation and the same with collective agreements,” she said.
“There’s a lot riding on what happens.”
Unifor released a statement Tuesday morning saying it also believed in the association model because it had been used successfully in British Colombia.
“We went into mediation with this as our goal. We worked hard to get there, and we still believe that this is the best approach, the fairest approach, the solution that respects workers’ rights and protects a stable public health care system, on which the people of Nova Scotia depend,” said Unifor Atlantic Director Lana Payne.
Despite mediation being over, Unifor strongly believes that bargaining councils are the best solution for its members and will ensure the continued provision of superior health care in Nova Scotia.”
CUPE also released a statement saying the bill had been doomed from the beginning. President of CUPE Danny Cavanagh says the bill “put all four unions in the untenable position of having to horse-trade their own members. No union worth their salt would ever consider doing that.”
The NSNU has not commented on the issue of an association model, but in a release, President Janet Hazelton says “the health care unions were all in a difficult position and that the legislation has done little to foster good relations within the labour movement.”
The provincial government appointed arbitrator James Dorsey last month under legislation that shrinks the number of bargaining units from 50 to four, with distinct bargaining unit for nurses, health-care workers, clerical staff and support staff.
An arbitration hearing will be held beginning Dec. 9. The provincial government says arbitration must be finished by Jan. 1, unless Health Minister Leo Glavine decides to extend the deadline.
Arbitration is final and binding, and every union will have to follow the rules set out by the arbitrator.
With files from The Canadian Press
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