CUPE strike reaches 10th day in New Brunswick
The strike by thousands of members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees in New Brunswick has now stretched into its 10th day, with negotiations between both sides seemingly at a standstill.
Workers continued to walk picket lines in communities throughout the province on Sunday, including east Saint John, where Chris Watson, president of Local 380 – which represents custodians, bus drivers and trades workers – says morale appears to still be high.
"With the government's announcement and everything the workers are feeling a little more empowered and ready to take on a fight," he says.
This weekend, a back-to-work order for striking health-care workers came into effect, with Premier Blaine Higgs saying on Friday that the health care system was nearing "the breaking point."
Under the order, those workers who don't show up for work risk being fined, with the minimum being $480 and the maximum more than $20,000.
St. Thomas University political science professor Jamie Gillies believes both sides do want to salvage an agreement, and that they're "probably pretty close."
"I think where there's loggerheads there, it seems to be around a little bit of a pay increase and about the premier's kind of obsession with public sector pensions, CUPE pension," says Gillies, "and maybe that is for another time and place."
The province has said that more than 11,000 appointments, procedures and surgeries have been cancelled since Nov. 1, along with delays in processing lab results along with impacts to COVID-19 testing.
In a news release, Horizon Health says it will start to resume surgeries, procedures and appointments – but it will take time to work through the waitlists.
The health authority also says it's working with Public Health now to re-book COVID-19 test appointments that were cancelled based on priority.
"CUPE has played its cards, the government has played its cards, it's time to end this," says Gillies, "because legislating people back, particularly angry health care workers back, is not a good sign – it's not good for anybody."
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