With no contract for three years, health care workers holding pickets at hospitals Monday

Health care workers will be holding information pickets Monday at hospitals across to try to pressure the Nova Scotia government as they approach three years without a contract.

Thousands of health care administrative professionals have been working without a signed deal since October of 2020.

The pickets by the 5,000 or so members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Nova Scotia Government Employees Union, Unifor and the Nova Scotia Nurses Union will be at concentrated at hospitals in Halifax, Dartmouth, Truro, Windsor, Kentville, Bridgewater, Yarmouth, Antigonish, New Glasgow, Amherst and Sydney, but will also happen at other locations. Workers will be wearing red on that day.

Workers didn’t get a raise in the last year of their old contract in 2019, so haven’t seen an increase in pay for four years.

NSGEU president Sandra Mullen said Saturday that means no more take home pay at a time of rampant price increases

“These are… serious inflationary times,” she said, and there is anger that the government is continuing to drag on the bargaining process and not doing more to hammer out a deal.

“Many of these people are working two jobs, many for the same employer. Some work a full-time admin professional job and are a casual in support services because folks are having a hard time making ends meet,” Mullen said. “The inflation we have seem the last little bit are numbers we haven’t seen in a long time, and when you haven’t had an economic adjustment since 2019… $18 an hour and a 1.5 per cent wage increase is not a lot of money.”

The unions have been increasing pressure on the government lately to get back to the table, including through an ad campaign, and believe that is the reason that this week they were called back to the bargaining table. The next date for talks is Oct. 11.

“We certainly ramped it up over the past few weeks,” Mullen said.

She said she expects that there will be a big turnout at the pickets.

“Our reach is wide. Each of the people who are working get a lunch hour, all those folks have family and friends and we’re that they are going to come out in support. Our unions have wide reach, our (other members, the Labour Council is going to be there to show support, and other in the health care sector as well.”