CANADIAN LABOUR-SASKATCHEWAN:

GOVERNMENT OFFER TO SASKATCHEWAN HEALTH CARE WORKERS INSULTING:

Out in Molly's old stomping ground, the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, the new ultra-conservative Saskatchewan Party (a temporary parking space for right wingers to avoid the aura of corruption of the old Conservatives-until they get caught enough themselves of course) continues its campaign of attacking ordinary people to increase the income and power of the rich. The latest targets are government employees in the health care sector. Here, from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is the latest news on the so-called "offer" of the government in negotiations that have been ongoing for over a year and a half. Molly has reported on these contract negotiations before last December.

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Health workers incensed by employers’ actions:
The Saskatchewan government and health employers “final offered” 25,000 health care providers and cancelled conciliation. Their actions have angered CUPE, which represents 12,600 health providers in five health regions.

Related: Hear radio host Roger Currie talk about the government's failure to bargain

“We are bitterly disappointed that the employers’ first move in conciliation is to present a final offer and cancel conciliation,” says CUPE Health Care Council President Gordon Campbell. “They’ve made a mockery of the conciliation process.”

The employers’ arrogance is tied to the government’s new essential services legislation, he adds. Under the legislation, three out of four health care providers are deemed essential and unable to strike.

The three health care providers unions – CUPE, SGEU and SEIU – have been negotiating for 17 months. Their contracts expired nearly two years ago.

“This so-called final offer is disgraceful,” says Mike Keith, CUPE’s chief negotiator, adding it contains all of the major concessions CUPE members rejected last June, when they voted 88% in support of job action. “These concessions are a license for health employers to understaff and overwork our members and mismanage our health care system.”

Keith says the union has “lost all confidence” that health employers have the mandate to negotiate a fair agreement.

“We are calling on the government to get serious about contract negotiations and stop trying to provoke a strike,” says Keith.

“We want to return to the bargaining table and negotiate a reasonable contract settlement. And we want the government to put a bargaining team in place to make make that happen,” he says.