Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck was in Weyburn Wednesday morning, meeting with CUPE Local 5430 Region 4 Vice President Arlene Picard. The two spoke to the media, highlighting concerns over staffing shortages in healthcare, worker burnout, and service disruptions at emergency rooms in the Weyburn area.
“We continue to see closures of health care centres, closures of services that people in Weyburn and surrounding communities rely on,” said Beck. “These closures are largely due to a lack of staffing.”
Beck highlighted the upcoming opening of Weyburn’s new hospital, noting that its success hinges not only on the facility itself but on the ability to recruit and retain qualified staff.
“In Weyburn alone, over the last year, we saw many closures, including over 20 days of closures in radiology, over 50 days in ultrasound,” she noted. “Of the seven emergency rooms in this region, six experienced closures. That is dangerous for residents.”
The meeting and media availability came two weeks ahead of planned bargaining between CUPE and the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations, the bargaining agent for the health sector in Saskatchewan. While wages won’t be on the table during the meeting, it is still something that is front-of-mind for many members of the union, according to Picard. She noted that there haven’t been wage increases for many of the union members in more than three years, which is leading to strain in their professional and personal lives.
“We’re losing workers out of the sector because they can’t afford to stay,” said Picard. “Some classifications are only earning a few dollars above minimum wage. They were once known as heroes, and now zeroes.”
The upcoming sessions will focus on relief language and work-life balance, key issues for CUPE members. Picard said staff are being denied time off, routinely working overtime, and in some cases being expected to be on call for more than 260 days a year.
“That’s nine months of on-call work in addition to their full-time job,” she said. “It’s just not sustainable. People have families to care for. They need to be home.”
Beck echoed these concerns, adding that some staff are being denied leave to attend major life events, such as their own children’s graduations. Others are opting to drop to casual status just to regain control over their schedules.
“These are the folks who take care of us, our parents, our children,” Beck said. “We can build all the hospitals we want, but if we don’t invest in the people who provide the care, we’ll continue to see burnout, resignations, and closures.”
Beck called on the provincial government to ensure the staffing plan for facilities, such as the new hospital in Weyburn, as well as emergency rooms across the region, includes both financial investment and meaningful collaboration with frontline workers.
“The government needs to get to the table with a fair deal,” she said. “This is the birthplace of Medicare. We have to do better.”
CUPE 5430 will be meeting with SAHO July 8th through 10th.