N.S. health mediation fails /Unions, province were in talks on cutting contract numbers;arbitration to follow / THE CHRONICLE HERALD [email protected] @chronicleherald There will be no mediated deal between the provincial government and Nova Scotia’s four health-care unions. The two sides have been in talks for 45 days with British Columbia mediator James Dorsey. Dorsey, who has made multiple trips to Nova Scotia for the process, returned home Thursday, and the mediation clock was to run out as of 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, said a union source, speaking on condition of anonymity because leaders agreed to a media blackout. At least one union was preparing to post information about the process so far on its website. The mediation process was part of the parameters laid out in Bill 1, the Liberal government’s centrepiece legislation of the autumn sitting that will merge nine district health authorities into one as of April 1. To facilitate that — and to reduce the number of contracts that need to be negotiated and end what the health minister has called an ongoing cycle of bargaining — Bill 1 included a clause that each of the four unions could only represent one classification of worker. A proposal from the four unions to work in bargaining associations to reach agreements was rejected by the province. Health and Wellness Minister Leo Glavine said at the time that the proposal would still have too many people at the table and wouldn’t do enough to reduce the number of contracts being negotiated. Despite protests from the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Nova Scotia Government & General Employees Union, the Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union and Unifor, the Grits passed the legislation with the support of the Progressive Conservatives in early October. That triggered the 45-day clock for mediation. With that set to expire, a 45-day arbitration period will begin Tuesday. Dorsey will be tasked with determining which union gets assigned to each of the four classifications: nurses, health care, clerical and service. A union source characterized talks so far as “extremely tough, in no small part because of how much the NSGEU stands to lose. Nova Scotia’s largest union will lose upwards of 9,000 members through the process, including its nurses. A stipulation in Bill 1 that each union can only represent a group of workers that it has represented in the past means the nurses’ union must get nurses, a move that will result in a windfall of new members. Unifor, because it only represents workers in the health-care and service classifications, is a lock to get service, where it has the larger percentage of members. The real question is what happens with the health-care and clerical classifications. Based on numbers released by the Health Association of Nova Scotia, it would seem that NSGEU could get clerical, based on it representing two-thirds of workers in that classification. If that comes to pass, CUPE would take health care and gain thousands of members, more than making up for the people it would lose in other categories. Union sources Monday had high praise for Dorsey’s work throughout the process — “He’s the best in the business, said one — but the consensus from everyone who talked with The Chronicle Herald on Monday was that the government’s parameters removed any wiggle room for Dorsey to find an arrangement that would be palatable to all parties. Glavine’s office declined a request for an interview until after the mediation period expires
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 17:08:19 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015