{"id":564045,"date":"2026-03-27T09:31:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T09:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/564045\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T09:31:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T09:31:24","slug":"health-care-workers-threaten-job-action-after-years-spent-trying-to-strike-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/564045\/","title":{"rendered":"Health care workers threaten job action after years spent trying to strike contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

Health care workers who haven\u2019t received a raise in years chanted and waved flags outside of the Legislative Building on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Members with CUPE Heath Care Workers held signs with phrases like \u201cburnout caused this turnout.\u201d The protest came more than three years after contract negotiations stalled.<\/p>\n

Bashir Jalloh, the president of CUPE Health Care Workers, said its members are angry.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n

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Over a hundred CUPE members showed up to push the province towards a contract after three years of bargaining. (Gillian Massie\/ 980 CJME)<\/p>\n

\u201cOur members have not received a $1 raise, a single cent raise, for four years,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are at the point now that our members are beyond frustrated and they are demanding job action.<\/p>\n

Jalloh said it will look more seriously at pursuing a \u201cstrike vote\u201d if a contract isn\u2019t reached at its next bargaining meeting in April.<\/p>\n

He said the union would work to figure out what needs to be included in an essential services plan with the employer.<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday afternoon, Jalloh didn\u2019t know what job action would include.<\/p>\n

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President of CUPE Health Care Workers Bashir Jalloh the union members want to move towards job action. (Gillian Massie\/ 980 CJME)<\/p>\n

Some workers at the rally told stories of how overwhelmed and understaffed they are in health care facilities.<\/p>\n

Others spoke about getting second jobs to pay their bills<\/a>. Jalloh said the majority of its members make less than $50,000 a year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want that acknowledgement, and that acknowledgement will start at what is happening on the bargaining table,\u201d Jalloh said. \u201cWe want them to come to the bargaining table to complete this round of bargaining, because our members are struggling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe working conditions (are) not good.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Some members shared stories about being overworked and understaffed at facilities. (Gillian Massie\/ 980 CJME)<\/p>\n

The union\u2019s leader has acknowledged that some progress has been made on a number of proposals at the bargaining table.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing they are stuck on is the ability for them to contract out workers, contract in workers and to move employees in and around the province without any consultations with the union,\u201d Jalloh said. \u201cThat is the sticking point here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Health care workers at the rally hold signs that said \u201cNo contract, No trust.\u201d (Gillian Massie\/ 980 CJME)<\/p>\n

Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill said he met with Jalloh before the rally.<\/p>\n

\u201cHard to say on the time frame,\u201d he said, commenting on when a deal could be expected. \u201cI think it\u2019s more important that we get a deal that works for healthcare workers but also works for patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cockrill called negotiations \u201ccomplex\u201d at the bargaining table because there are three different unions involved, with CUPE Health Care Workers being one of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur priority is going to be getting a deal done, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to spend our energy on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health care workers who haven\u2019t received a raise in years chanted and waved flags outside of the Legislative…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":["post-564045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}