The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Does a 35 per cent wage hike over four years sound like a good offer? Not necessarily, says Rosalie Longmore, head of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses. Nevertheless, SUN members will vote on June 23 on the Òfinal offerÓ from the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO). Since most nurses are in the top pay bracket (or step), the pay increase is indeed sweet. This group would see their wages immediately rise from $64,232 to $70,655 and reach $86,624 in April 2011. The new contract offer also pays one-time bonuses of $1,750 in 2011 and 2012, and ensures overtime always pays double. Moreover, all nurses who have been in SUN for at least 20 years would get two per cent more, hiking pay at the top step to $88,359. Nurse practitioners have been offered the same wage hikes, plus an additional $6 per hour. In their May 30 press release, SUN acknowledged the generous pay hike, but expressed disappointment about risks to patient safety and staffing levels. However, SAHOÕs offer explicitly binds health regions to abide by all the terms of SUNÕs recruitment and retention agreement with the province. SAHO will hire as many RNs as existed on November 1, 2007, including the vacancies at that time. They will even sit down with SUN in December to work out ways to entice nurses eligible for retirement to stay in the workforce. The only caveat is that if an SUN position is posted and not filled (because no one wants it), SAHO reserves the right to hire an LPN or other health worker to fill the post on a six month temporary basis. This temp position could only be renewed if, again, no SUN nurse wanted it. Is this really too much to ask, especially if staffing levels and patient safety are such a priority for SUN? ItÕs hard to see how SAHO could go any further. With three other health care unions without a contract, the $600-million offer for 7,700 SUN employees has already become the rabbit to chase. ItÕs tough to have sympathy for SUN in their negotiations. Few taxpayers will see their own wages grow by this pace over the next four years. Further, health costs have risen four times faster than inflation in the past 10 years, and have also outpaced our economic growth. If this is Ònot about the money,Ó as Longmore insists, maybe itÕs about the power. Regardless, neither taxpayers nor health regions can afford to hand SUN any more keys or any more dollars.
