Union leaders react to Dorsey decision
Posted Jan 20, 2015 08:00:01 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Arbitrator James Dorsey has tabled his decision on the government’s controversial Health Authorities Act.
He has ruled that province can reduce the number of bargaining units representing workers from 50 to four.
Under legislation passed in the fall, there will be separate unions for nurses, health care workers, clerical workers and support staff, but Dorsey postponed the decision on which unions will be representing those workers.
Dorsey also gave the option for the unions to create a unified bargaining unit for health care and support staff, a recommendation Nova Scotia Government and General Employee’s Union president Joan Jessome agrees with.
“This is forming a union with unions in it, where you’d have a constitution and bylaws and a structure in place,” said Jessome. “It requires all the unions to sit down and negotiate that among each other, then take it out to the members to support.”
Jessome added the ruling prevents the Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union from taking over responsibility for the province’s 10,000 nurses and allows her to argue that nurses and other health workers can remain in her union.
Nova Scotia Nurses Union president Janet Hazleton said the decision leaves many questions unanswered.
“If you’re a nurse in the province tonight, you’re saying, ‘So what does this mean for me, where and who will be representing us as of April 2nd,'” said Hazelton.
Hazleton said her union might still be chosen to represent all nurses if the province tells Dorsey the IWK Health Centre and the provincial health authority are a single employer, which would give her union a majority of the nurses.
CUPE president Danny Cavanagh says the ruling means the unions may be able to keep their members and work out mergers.
“He’s saying to everybody, get back to the table and make it work,” said Cavanagh.
Lana Payne of Unifor agreed that Dorsey’s decision means the unions could still form a bargaining association.
Dorsey says he will resume hearings on Feb. 2 on the remaining issue of which union will represent each of the four bargaining units.
