Health care workers strike in four regions around Saskatchewan

More than 100 health care workers in four different health regions in Saskatchewan walked off the Thursday morning to back their contract demands and calls for binding arbitration.

Health Sciences Association of Saskatchewan (HSAS) says workers in the Saskatoon, Prairie North, Kelsey and Sun health regions will be manning picket lines as they escalate strike action to multiple regions.

This is the first time since rotating job action began last month that workers in more than one region have been on strike.

“We have been forced to escalating strike action, because SAHO and the Wall government continue to refuse to bargain in good faith or consider our request to submit our contract dispute to independent, binding arbitration,” said HSAS President Cathy Dickson.

HSAS is not say how long these health care workers will remain on strike or where further job action will take place.

There is no word yet from any of the health regions on how this latest job action will affect services.

HSAS and the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO) are locked in a bitter contract dispute. HSAS is seeking a wage increase of 14.5 per cent over four year while SAHO is offering 7.5 per cent over the same period with market-based increases for about 85 per cent of the workers.

HSAS represents around 3,000 health care professionals in the province. They have been without a contract for over two years.