By GREG NIKKEL, of the Weyburn Review
The 179 members of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) in the South Central Health District, along with officials at the health district's facilities, heaved a sigh of relief as the nurses were back on the job on Sunday, at the end of their 10-day walkout.
A new round of negotiations resumed on Monday to hammer out the details of the agreement reached in a memorandum of understanding, signed between Premier Roy Romanow, SUN president Rosalee Longmoore, and Brian Rourke, chairman of the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO) on Sunday morning.
The agreement will give the province's 8,400 nurses the mandated wage increase of two per cent each year over a three-year period, a one-per-cent increase in benefits, 1.3 per cent for wage disparities, plus extended benefits worth 2.1 per cent and new money for recruiting and retaining nurses worth $2.5 million each year of the agreement.
"I think the members are glad to be back at work, doing the work they want to do and doing the work they were trained for. I think they're glad we're starting to focus on the problems in health care," said Nancy Styles, president of the SUN local for the health district, on Tuesday.
A Queen's Bench judge in Regina heard submissions on the charge of contempt of court against SUN for disobeying the injunction to go back to work, and the matter was adjourned one week until Tuesday, April 27. SAHO insists they will not drop the charge against SUN as the union did not end their labour action until the memorandum of agreement was signed.
The nurses were back on the job here by around noon on Sunday, said Lee Spencer, CEO and president of the health district.
"We're extremely happy to have our nurses back. The 22 out-of-scope staff went absolutely over and beyond the call of duty, and they had excellent support from all the staff to make easier," said Spencer, who kept in constant touch with the nurses on the picket line to ensure essential services were taken care of.
"We were able to maintain a fairly good attitude and relationship with the nurses' union. We sat down on at least two occasions with the nurse leadership to help work out things. I'm hoping this thing wasn't personal at all and was bigger than all of us," said Spencer.
The CEO said most departments were able to get back to normal by Monday, with the exception being elective surgery, which will take longer to sort out the backlogged waiting list. During the 10-day strike, the Weyburn General Hospital was only taking in emergency and maternity cases, and patients were amalgamated onto one floor of the facility.
Asked if the work conditions that forced nurses to take strike action will be addressed now, Styles answered, "I really do think things can and will change, but it's not going to be a short-term thing. We're going to have to work hard at it."
She noted one of the items in the framework agreement is the establishment of independent assessment committees as a binding force in health care facilities, which is a change from before.
If a nurse encounters problems in the safe delivery of health care, the matter can be taken to the committee which can make orders to change the methods by which health care is being delivered, and these orders are binding upon the employer, said Styles.
"Once these things start happening and people can see them, it will attract more young people into the field because they will be able to see there are improvements and they can do their job like it was meant to be done," she said.
The president of the local felt the strike accomplished what the nurses set out to do for the most part, acknowledging that going on strike is sometimes a gamble that doesn't always pay off for workers.
"I think the most important thing the strike accomplished was to make the government listen to our concerns about workplace conditions," she said, adding it is still important to do public education so people will know what the processes of health care are and how we can keep costs down to a minimum.
The members of SUN will have to ratify the agreement once the details have been settled in negotiations. Styles said no time line has been set for the two parties to complete the details of the agreement, as the parties will work until the contract is settled. The details of the contract will be explained to the union members before they take a vote to ratify it.
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