New Brunswick’s unionized nursing home workers have received the government’s final offer, and initial reactions from leadership are not positive.
The new proposal is for a 5.5 per cent raise over 4 years, up from 4 per cent in the last offer. But along with the 1.5 per cent increase in wages comes a two decrease in sick days.
“So in a sense it’s taking the raise from the sick time,” said Patrick Roy, the nursing home workers coordinator for the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
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In response, the union is standing its ground asking for a 12 per cent increase over the next four years, which premier Blaine Higgs says the province can’t afford.
“Over the last several months union leadership came forward with unrealistic demands of wage increases. We believe this is an effort to set a precedent for higher wages for all employee groups,” Higgs said.
“But the fact is, if we gave the most recent wage demands from CUPE to all provincial employees, it would cost tax payers over $300 million a year. That kind of a bill would almost certainly lead to tax increases or service reductions or a combination of both and taxpayers don’t want either.”
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CUPE president Brien Watson disagrees with Higgs’ assessment.
“The money is there to fix this problem but I think that the premier is dug in too deep and he’s using the seniors, he’s using the nursing home workers, and it’s a personal vendetta against the unions,” Watson said.
By declaring the government’s final offer, premier Blaine Higgs is triggering section 105.1 of the Industrial Relations Act that allows employers a single chance to force a vote.
Higgs has contended throughout negotiations that union leadership are the ones pushing for these increases, without the support of the membership.
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But that notion was disputed by Roy who pointed to the strike vote in March where over 94 per cent of members voted in favour of job action.
“The premier is out there saying he believes it’s the hierarchy that’s actually pushing an agenda and that it’s not the membership. Well I guess he doesn’t recall back to when we had the strike vote. To be honest in my career working for CUPE and even before as a member prior I have never seen a strike vote come in that high with that big of a participation rate,” he said.
“I think if he requests this vote under 105(1) he’s going to get another resounding no and hopefully that opens his eyes to realize, to finally say that it’s coming from the membership, it’s not just us at the front here that are saying no to stuff.”
The union also reiterated their desire to have discussions with the premier regarding the recruitment and retention issues that are plaguing the industry.
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“The biggest part about this whole round of bargaining … is the part about recruitment and retention. We’ve got a major problem in this sector where we’ve got a major lack of personnel,” Roy said.
“We’ve got a bunch of employees that are overworked, they’re working short, they’re working overtime through the roof … this is pretty well an epidemic around the province now. Every home pretty well works short every single day, every shift.”
While the union maintains that one of the most effective ways to begin flipping the trend is to pay higher wages, Higgs disagrees, calling the wage increases “a short term high” that would do nothing to address the poor working conditions inside the province’s nursing homes.
“We want to find ways to make it a better work environment, we want to find a way to address the stress levels, we want to ensure that people feel good about coming to work,” Higgs said.
“I believe sincerely that the people in the nursing homes, they know why conditions are such that it makes it difficult for them or it makes it more stressful to come to work and what I’m saying is I want to be able to work with them to fix those conditions.”
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When asked if there were any concrete proposals to deal with staffing levels and working conditions in the government’s offer Higgs said no.
Should union membership reject the latest proposal, the union said it would be willing to wait the province out to see if there would be a more cooperative government in place after two upcoming by-elections.
“The clock has started for a by-election in Charlotte County. We can’t wait to see that clock run out … because we will certainly be in Charlotte County to ask the tory candidate what he thinks about nursing home workers in his riding that he or she would be representing,” said Roland Cormier, the first vice-president of the New Brunswick Council of Nursing Home Unions.
“We can’t wait for that by-election to be called.”
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The PCs currently have 21 MLAs, while the Liberals have 20, including the speaker Daniel Guitard.
The ridings of St. Croix and Shediac Bay-Dieppe will need new representation sometime in the next six months after the death of PC MLA Greg Thompson and former premier Brian Gallant.
Shediac Bay Dieppe is one of the safest seats Liberal seats in the province, with Gallant winning almost 70 per cent of the vote in 2018. St. Croix, and it’s predecessors, have voted PC five out of the last eight elections, but with the tenuous balance of power in the minority legislature, each of the parties will be focusing heavily on the riding. As will the union.
“We’re willing to wait out the premier on that by-election and we can count and I know he can count too,” Cormier said.
“His government could fall on a by-election in Charlotte County. So we can’t wait to have that by-election.”
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