Yukon hospital workers give union strike mandate as contract talks resume

Unionized employees of the Yukon Hospital Corporation have voted in favour of strike action if they cannot reach a new deal with their employer.

The Yukon Employees Union (YEU), which represents nearly 400 hospital workers in Whitehorse, Watson Lake and Dawson City, said on Thursday that its members voted "overwhelmingly" in favour of a strike mandate for the union's bargaining team.

The union did not say how many members voted, or the exact percentage of those who were in favour. No strike deadline has been set, and union president Justin Lemphers said the earliest any sort of labour action could happen is March 26.

"There's still the potential that we could come to an agreement here in the short term, but the membership has taken a strike vote and that vote has been supported," Lemphers said.

The vote does not mean that workers will walk off the job if negotiations reach an impasse, he said. It could mean work-to-rule, or something else.

"There's a multitude of options that are available to the union membership in determining what kind of action that can be taken. It doesn't mean that necessarily that there's going to be a picket," he said.

The last collective agreement expired in September 2022.

The union says it applied for conciliation last fall after eight months of bargaining. Talks resumed this week with a conciliator.

Yukon Hospital Corporation spokesperson Jessica Apolloni said the employer is "just committed to keeping those lines of communication open." She did not provide any other details about the ongoing talks.

Apolloni said the union represents about half of all hospital employees, including everybody from janitorial, administrative and security staff to lab technologists and pharmacy technicians.

"So it makes up a lot of the hospital," she said.

In a statement last fall, the union said talks had stalled and a conciliator was required to help address "outstanding monetary matters."

Lemphers said on Thursday that the unionized workers are "looking for a good deal that respects the work that they have done."

"People want to be able to work safely, they want to be able to be respected for the work that they do. They want to be valued for it appropriately. They want fair compensation. The challenges have only increased. So there are many demands that need to be met," Lemphers said.