Manitoba's nurses reach tentative contract with employers only weeks after last contract expired

The union representing Manitoba's nurses has reached a tentative agreement with its employers only a few weeks after the last contract expired — a much faster turnaround than the 4½ years nurses last worked without a contract.

The Manitoba Nurses Union says its bargaining committee unanimously supported the proposed contract late last week, and is recommending nurses vote in favour, according to a social media post.

Union members will receive details about the agreement on Wednesday, a spokesperson said, and a ratification vote will be held at a later time. 

MNU wouldn't speak about the terms of the tentative agreement, including salary details, until their members had seen it.

The social media post says the tentative agreement was reached in "record time." The union's last contract, a seven-year agreement, expired on Mar. 31. 

A spokesperson added it usually takes six months to a year to reach a tentative agreement.

Negotiations don't usually begin until the previous agreement has expired, or close to. In this case, proposals were first exchanged just prior to the previous contract's expiration, the spokesperson said.

Tentative deal reached in weeks instead of years

The weeks it took to reach a tentative agreement is a significant departure from the years it took the union and employers during the last round of negotiations — nurses worked without a contract from 2017 until 2021.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara is thrilled a new deal appears to be imminent. 

"The fact that nurses know that in record time there is a recommended agreement on the table for them sends a clear signal that our government values them, that we respect them and that we want to support them in the health-care system."

The last negotiations were conducted under the oversight of a Progressive Conservative government that initially sought to freeze the wages of all public sector employees for two years. 

While nurses dealt with a sustained wage freeze, their working conditions deteriorated.

Exhausted nurses left their jobs in droves, with some retiring or quitting, and others choosing to work for private agencies where they're paid more and don't face mandatory overtime. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated ongoing issues in the health-care system, the union has previously said.

The 2021 deal, which included years of retroactive pay, included general wage increases that totalled "9.6 per cent before compounding." There were also improvements to shift premiums, overtime and other allowances, incentives for travel and transfers, and protections against "inordinately long durations of work and duration of standby," the union said at the time.

News of the new contract comes as MNU, which represents more than 12,000 nurses in the province, prepares to host its annual general meeting Tuesday and Wednesday at the Fairmont Hotel in Winnipeg. This week is also recognized in Canada as National Nursing Week.