Members of CUPE 5430 held an informational picket outside of the Weyburn General Hospital Tuesday over the lunch hour. The union members were joined by other healthcare workers in the southeast to talk about challenges in terms of recruitment, retention, and wages as a number of health unions engage in contract talks with the provincial government. 

Wages were one of the issues raised by Bashir Jalloh the president of CUPE for healthcare workers in the province. He stated the cost of living in Saskatchewan has increased by 27 percent in the past decade, but the wages have only increased by 14 percent. 

"We found that it's only about 19 percent of them (the union's membership) that describe their finances as good," Jalloh explained of the results of the internal survey. "About 56 percent said poor, and 24 percent is extremely poor."

Retention is also a key issue the union wants to see addressed in their new collective agreement. Jalloh said while there is an aggressive approach to recruitment right now, nothing is being done to keep people here, particularly those who have been working in the field through the pandemic. 

"There's been no attention paid to the retention of the healthcare workers who are working, who have been here during COVID, who are working through this," Jalloh emphasized. "Nothing has been done for them, and even with the recent budget, we were very hopeful that there was going to be something with that but we did not see anything with regards to that."

Jodie Jamieson is a continuing care aide who works in Wawota and made the trip to Weyburn for the picket. She said retention is a key issue for her as well, noting overtime is becoming more and more demanded of staff in her area. 

"For the whole month of January, we were in overtime in every department," Jamieson said. "Right now, my kids get upset when the phone rings because they don't want me to come into work, because they know that's what that means - it's that scheduling is phoning me for overtime."

Jalloh said the bargaining process has been slow as of late, with the government looking to rewrite the collective agreement, and aligning the agreement with others. There are some bargaining sessions scheduled for the spring and the summer. For the time being, the union is willing to see how the bargaining process plays out. 

"At the end of the summer, we'll have to assess, make a decision, if bargaining is where we want to be, and determining what we're going to do," Jalloh added. 

The most recent collective bargaining agreement for CUPE 5430 expired on March 31st of last year. There have been a handful bargaining meetings held since the start of the new year, but no progress has been made on a new agreement.