Shared Health and the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals have tentatively agreed on a new contract for more than 6,000 health-care workers, averting a possible strike.
“We have finally reached a tentative agreement after 15 months of painstaking negotiations, including over nine weeks of mediation. We are hopeful that, if ratified, this new deal can help retain and recruit more specialized allied health-care professionals on the front line where Manitobans need them,” union president Jason Linklater said in a press release.
Recruitment and retention were issues of note during negotiations, as well as higher wages. The group of roughly 6,500 workers have been without a contract for more than five years.
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Details of the tentative deal were not made publicly available.
In April, union members voted 99.3 per cent in favour of a strike should negotiations be unsuccessful, but the June 15 strike deadline was extended indefinitely just days before.
Linklater said the union’s wait for a new contract is the longest of any health-care sector in Canada.
The union represents 44 professions in the health-care sector across the province.
A vote on the new contract is underway and results are expected to be released “shortly,” according to the release.