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Healthcare workers want a fair deal now, or even better, yesterday.
That’s according to chants shouted outside of Regina’s Delta Hotel, where dozens of Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) members came together to rally for improved working conditions.
CUPE Saskatchewan President Kent Peterson said the union’s healthcare workers haven’t received a wage increase for years.
“I don’t know what the holdup is on the provincial government’s side, but it’s gone on long enough,” Peterson said.
“These folks have gone over three years without a raise. It’s time for a fair deal.”
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That sentiment was echoed by healthcare worker Dionne Wagner, who said she’s done bargaining.
“We need this settled,” she said.
According to Wagner, who has worked in the industry for 25 years, the current salaries make it hard to afford the basics.
“You buy two bags of groceries, and that’s pretty much a couple of hours of you working,” Wagner said. “We can’t live anymore. People are going to the food bank.”
CUPE President, Kent Peterson, said the provincial government has a pattern of not listening to healthcare workers and fail to take, “the concerns that these folks have seriously.” (Marija Robinson/980 CJME)
“We were heroes”
The strategic location along Saskatchewan Drive was chosen because people were bargaining inside the Delta Hotel.
“They can hear the honks and the megaphones upstairs at the bargaining table right now, and so they know the support we have,” Peterson said, referring to the provincial government’s bargaining agent.
While that support for healthcare workers was audible from passing drivers, Wagner said the support has quieted down since the pandemic.
“We were heroes,” Wagner said. “But now we feel underpaid, undervalued. We’re very important to keep your health up, and without that, people could die.”
According to Wagner, the occupations represented by CUPE keep Saskatchewan’s healthcare system afloat.
One person used a megaphone to chant “honk for healthcare” and a “fair deal with living wages” on Saskatchewan Drive’s median between the casino and Delta. (Marija Robinson/980 CJME)
Retention crisis in healthcare
Continuing to stay afloat will depend on higher wages.
“Healthcare workers are voting with their feet, and they’re leaving the province,” Peterson said.
“The provincial government right now can’t fill many positions in our healthcare system because they don’t pay enough.”
He said it’s causing Saskatchewan to be in a “retention crisis.”
Wagner has witnessed this crisis firsthand, explaining how people feel burnt out.
“I can tell you, every department I’m constantly getting workload forms that it’s short-staffed and people can’t keep it up,” Wagner said.
Increasing wages would encourage people to stay, leading to better results for both sides of the healthcare system.
“Get a fair deal for workers so that they can get on doing the good job that they do for Saskatchewan patients and their families,” Peterson said.
