Six weeks ago, the provincial government announced plans to amalgamate the regional health authorities (RHAs) from 11 regions to five. On May 30th, 2012, these mergers were completed.
With that in mind, on Thursday, May 31st, the MGEU Board of Directors felt it was necessary to trigger representation votes in the amalgamated RHAs, because the Board believes productive bargaining will not take place with representation votes hanging over the heads of members in these RHAs.
In the simplest terms, a representation vote means members have to decide which union will represent them at the bargaining table and in the workplace. For example: Those working in health care support services in the Westman region formerly belonged to three separate RHAs (Assiniboine, Brandon and Parkland). Those three RHAs have now been amalgamated into one (Western RHA). CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) and the MGEU both represent members in the new Western RHA, and because of that members in this region will have to choose between these two unions.
MGEU President, Lois Wales will be meeting with representatives from MGEU Locals in the affected RHAs this week and will be advising members shortly about the plan to trigger these representation votes.