Yellowknife nurse supports the movement to give her profession her own collective agreement

A Yellowknife nurse for a long time says that her profession needs her own collective agreement in the NWT to address the current nursing scarcity that the territory is experiencing.

Sheila Laity, who has worked as a nurse at the NWT since 1992, said that the bill of a private member collected last week could address the problems faced by current nurses and help recruit more personnel.

Yellowknife North Mla Shauna Morgan presented the private member’s bill Last Thursday to change NWT’s public service law to allow nurses to form their own negotiation unit.

NWT nurses, together with the vast majority of unionized government employees, are represented by the Union of Workers of the North (UNS), which is established by the Public Service Law.

Laity said that the current collective agreement, negotiated by the Union of Workers of the North and the Territorial Government, does not take into account the unique situations faced by nurses.

The bill is still in its early stages. If there is support for this, there would be formal public audiences and consultations with the interested parties in this regard.

Difficult challenges to address through current negotiation

Laity said that recruiting nurses to the north has always been difficult, and with an international nursing scarcity, it has become even more difficult.

“The average Canadian wants to live less than 100 kilometers from the American border in a large metropolitan center. We are in small places, it is a winter many months of the year,” he said.

Laity was once the first vice president of the UNH and then a regional vice president, and recalls the discussions on a separate collective agreement for nurses dating from 1993. He said that addressing the barriers faced by nurses in the collective agreement is a challenge with the negotiation in its current form.

She said that each local unit, which is a group of unionized employees, sends representatives to a negotiation conference. Each local unit contributes some priorities and all attendees at the conference vote on what priorities to advance.

Laity said he has been in conferences in which there are only two nurses in a room of about 40 people, which makes nurses make their priorities advance.

Laity said that although they would have a separate collective agreement, the nursing negotiation unit could be part of the UNH.

Execution says that the legislation changes is a ‘threat’ for northern workers

An executive of the Public Service Alliance of Canada North, of which the UNS is a part, said it does not oppose the nurses have their own collective agreement, but that it is disabled with Morgan’s bill.

Regional Executive Vice President José-Anne Spirirto said that giving that power to the legislature would open a “dangerous door for each worker throughout the territory.” Workers’ representative in the three territories, it is also called a “threat” for all northern workers.

Spirito, who has been a nurse for 15 years, had a particular problem with the timeline of the bill.

Morgan’s proposal says that the territory has a seven -month -old window to make a change before collective bargaining between the territory and the resumption of UNH. He says that making legislative changes during negotiations would be a politically challenge.

“This type of attitude now or is never definitely a great concern,” Spirito said. “Hurry up with the current documents that are being presented raises many red flags in terms of the implementation of this bill and the final result and the impact on our members.

“We want nurses to be better supported. We know that working conditions at this time, especially in Stanton (Territorial Hospital), are less than acceptable. We know how desperate it is, how important we make these changes as soon as possible.”

But, he said, hurrying a bill could have the potential to make things worse in the future.