The people of Saskatchewan need more for frontline workers in order to maintain public healthcare.
That was the message Vice-President Neil Colmin and other members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) West wanted to deliver to Humboldt-Watrous MLA Donna Harpauer’s constituency office in Humboldt on May 11.
Colmin and his team dropped off 1,300 cards signed by members of their community that request more done for healthcare providers as they continue to negotiate current changes to agreements.
“The 3.5 per cent roll back of wages have to come off the table and the cuts to public healthcare have to stop,” says Colmin.
Healthcare workers are spread thin across the province, he says, and they need more than what they are getting.
“These are the front line people who do the day to day, hands on work looking after people, feeding people, maintaining and keeping facilities clean and a whole host of other professional duties in the health care team. Our Provincial health care needs the proper funding to recruit and maintain these front line workers, this precious commodity within our communities.”
Since 2016, healthcare providers have received no increases to their wage, according to SEIU-West documents. In that same time frame, cost of living has increased by 3.5 per cent with the average Saskatchewan wage increasing by 1.8 per cent.
“The Saskatchewan government expects the cost of living in Saskatchewan to go up 2.3 per cent in 2018 and 1.8-1.9 per cent over each of the next four years. A wage freeze or rollback on healthcare providers will seriously damage our ability to attract and retain health care workers in an already unstaffed environment,” says the documentation.
“We’re on the cusp right now. A lot of services are being cut back already, especially for the services that can’t speak for themselves…we need the influx of money to provide recruitment and retention of our healthcare professionals within this province.”
Personally, Colmin worries that if Saskatchewan does not get that influx soon, the province will see a decline in healthcare, especially in rural areas.
“We’re already seeing a decline to a certain degree in the rural area while they’re centralizing services in the cities. We don’t want to see that anymore.”
Investing in money into frontline staff will prevent a crisis, says Colmin.
The Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations contract is in negotiations with the province, he says, but Colmin is unsure how this will impact Saskatchewan healthcare.
“We are hopeful that the government will invest more money in frontline workers, that’s where we need it.”
The SEIU-West represents over 13,000 people in Saskatchewan including members in the health care, education, municipalities, community-based organizations, retirement homes, and other sectors says a SEIU-West press release.
