The Province has already begun its reduction of Regional Health Authorities (RHAs) from eleven regions to five, but continues to assure its employees and all of their unions that all front line positions will be maintained.
With these amalgamations, several different unions will now represent employees in the same region. The government said that, for now, they would not require these employees to amalgamate their unions as well.
The other unions involved (such as the United Food and Commercial Workers, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, and the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals) seemed prepared to take the government at their word. They made it clear to those involved they wanted to stick with the status quo and try and make it work.
But we disagreed. At the MGEU, we made it clear that this strategy would leave us all spinning our wheels. We’ve been through this before; eventually, it no longer makes sense to have employees with two different contracts working side-by-side. People working in the same region begin demanding the same contracts. Sooner or later, members will have to choose the union to represent them ? and experience tells us that sooner is better, avoiding months, or even years, of confusion and disparity.
On May 31, 2012, the MGEU board representatives voted unanimously in favour of approaching the Manitoba Labour Board to trigger representation votes in each of the regions where MGEU has a stake
MAHCP applies to Labour Board on Friday, June 8, 2012
Following the board meeting, the MGEU contacted the other health care unions to let them know we’d be triggering votes in all amalgamated areas where we have Health Care Support Services and Technical Professional Paramedical (TPP) members.
This set one of the other unions in motion, and on Friday, June 8, 2012, the MAHCP applied to the Manitoba Labour Board to amalgamate the three TPP bargaining units of the newly established Western Regional Health Authority.
Votes to take place over the next few months
The MGEU believes creating a single, unified bargaining unit as soon as possible is the right thing to do and welcomes the chance to share with all TPP employees in the region why the MGEU is the best union in the province.
The Manitoba Labour Board is responsible for setting the voting schedules, but it’s our hope that the process will be completed by the fall. At some point over the next few months, votes will also be held in the two TPP bargaining units in the new Southern RHA.
As more information becomes available, we’ll continue to post updates here at mgeu.ca. In the mean time, any member affected by these votes is encouraged to contact the MGEU Resource Centre if they have a question. If you want to update your contact info to ensure you receive the latest updates by mail or e-mail, visit the Member Info Update page.