logos CUPE 8920 NSGEU Unifor, on a white background

Employers refuse to meet for health care bargaining

Nova Scotia’s 7,500 health care workers have spent the past year-and-a-half providing outstanding service to help protect and care for their fellow citizens through the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Nova Scotia Health (NSH) and the IWK have proposed about a dozen concessions and then stalled bargaining making it difficult to conclude a fair collective agreement with the very employees they have hailed as “heroes.” The NSH and IWK cancelled seven days of bargaining in April and May due to the third wave of the pandemic. While the Council of Unions understood the need to postpone dates, it argued the employers should set new later dates which could again be postponed if required. After waiting two weeks for the employers to provide alternate dates, the Council decided to refer stalled bargaining to conciliation. A conciliation officer held a meeting with employer and council representatives in mid-May and set dates for conciliation … Read more…

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School support staff given no consideration in reopening plans

The union representing school support staff at all Regional Centres for Education and the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial is calling on Premier Rankin to listen to the educational support staff who do the actual work of maintaining schools and keeping students safe. “We should be given the same consideration as students when it comes to safety,” says Lisa deMolitor, chair of the Nova Scotia School Board Council of Unions. “When a school is shut down due to an active case, at a minimum, all school staff should be directed to work from home, for the same amount of time that students are out of the school. This would help to reduce the risk of exposure to education workers, particularly where there is still community spread.” “What the Premier and Dr. Strang might not understand is that when the schools were closed two weeks ago, our members engaged in a process … Read more…

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Rankin should not roll the dice by reopening Nova Scotia schools this semester

The union representing workers at child care centres and all regional centres for education across the province is calling Premier Iain Rankin’s plan to reopen schools, while two regions are still under lockdown, as risky and unmanageable. CUPE Nova Scotia President Nan McFadgen says, “I’m glad we’re hitting vaccine targets and children age 12 and older are now eligible for vaccination. However, the Premier has changed his plans 180 degrees from Monday to today. Why now? What is there to be gained?” “For the Province to say that schools have not been a significant source of COVID-19 transmission, well we can’t be entirely sure that is the case,” says Lisa deMolitor, chair of the Nova Scotia School Board Council of Unions. “The data on active cases linked to schools that is available on the Department’s website today does not line up with the information they provided to us over the … Read more…