Bargaining Updates 2024

 Dear valued member: 

This week, your bargaining committee met with SAHO on February 5, 6, and 7 to continue negotiations. Despite our relentless efforts to move this process forward without delay, SAHO continues to slow the progress. 

We have scheduled a follow-up meeting with SAHO and our counterparts from SEIU-West and SGEU on February 13. This meeting will focus on the pace of bargaining and the need for alternate options at the table. 

In the upcoming weeks we will host a bargaining townhall for all our members, so stay tuned for details. 

Warmest greetings of this festive season from your bargaining committee and provincial executive.

We wanted to send out a bargaining update to keep our members informed. We just finished three days of bargaining with SAHO. The general tone of bargaining was more positive than past sessions have been, and we were able to reach agreement on some pieces of language.

Dear valued member:

Your bargaining committee met with SAHO on November 5, 6, and 7. Again, the employer refused to agree to any language that would have resulted in improvements to our members’ work/life balance, predictability of scheduling, and other proposals to improve working conditions.

Meanwhile, the employer continued to push their proposals that would increase their ability to move you around, to disregard seniority, and otherwise make your employment more precarious. This is not something your bargaining committee is willing to accept.

Following the provincial election, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe shared that he received a clear message from the electorate and plans to do things differently. Your executive is working to ensure that change includes a different approach to health care. We will be reaching out to the Premier and the newly appointed Minister of Health Jeremy Cockrill to set up meetings where we will outline our priorities and demand better from their government.

Your bargaining committee met with SAHO on August 27, 28, and September 18. The employer has been resistant to scheduling additional bargaining dates this fall and continues to drag its feet and stall negotiations. This is frustrating for your bargaining committee, as we have been bargaining for an entire year, and our members have been without a contract since April 1, 2023.

We approached bargaining with the intent to fight for improvements on issues like relief work, overtime, professional fees, leaves, occupational health and safety, wages, long-term disability benefits, extended health and dental, and pension.

Dear valued member:

Your bargaining committee met with SAHO on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week. While we continue to focus on moving things forward, we remain in non-monetary discussions at the bargaining table. SAHO continues to push proposals that will worsen your working conditions and up to this point has not accepted any of our provisions that would improve your working conditions.

We have been prepared for each round of bargaining with concrete proposals and counter-proposals ready. This is in sharp contrast to SAHO, who continues to stall and uses our limited bargaining time to prepare. This lack of preparation has slowed bargaining progress and has resulted in us being unable to discuss wages, premiums, or benefits – which are the top issues facing our members. We will continue to pressure SAHO and the government to reach agreement on important articles and to speed up this bargaining process.

Dear valued member:

Your bargaining committee met with the employer on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week.

We continue to focus on moving things forward while addressing key concerns, but the employer continues to focus on proposals that are not top priority for our members. As a result of this, we have been unable to discuss wages, premiums, or benefits – which are the top issues facing our members.

Bargaining Update - #15

Bargaining with SAHO took place Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week. Discussions between the parties were more productive and more engaging than in the previous months of bargaining, which was a positive change.

We continued to advocate on the issues of overtime, variable hours, and standby. Working short is one of our biggest concerns. We focussed on improving terms and conditions of employment to address recruitment and retention concerns.

Your bargaining committee met with the employer for two and a half days from December 11 to 13.

SAHO spent the majority of our scheduled time together meeting as a committee having internal discussions and was not available for face-to-face conversations with us. We are frustrated with SAHO’s lack of preparation for these bargaining dates, and we hope this will be rectified moving forward.

Your CUPE bargaining committee was scheduled to bargain with the SAHO bargaining committee on November 14, 15, and 16. Unfortunately, the employer cut the bargaining session short before noon on the second day.

Historically, CUPE 5430, SEIU-West, and SGEU have bargained “common proposals” at a table with SAHO. These proposals have been limited to certain monetary items. This process requires agreement between all three unions and SAHO.

In this round of bargaining, SAHO’s 71-page proposal package is, for the most part, a rewrite of our collective agreement with the intent to remove our independence as a union. Additionally, the employer is pushing for numerous concessions that will worsen working conditions for you and all health care members.

Dear valued members:

Over the last three days your bargaining committee has been bargaining with the employer.

This set of bargaining dates focused on exchanging proposals and having discussions about each party’s priorities. We are in the initial stages and have not discussed monetary items yet, such as wages.

The employer’s proposal package is very large and complex. We have numerous concerns and are still in the process of analysing their proposals.

As summer quickly turns to fall, your bargaining team is looking forward to beginning the bargaining process on your behalf. Our first set of dates with the employer is scheduled for September 19, 20, and 21.

Over the summer, your executive participated in facility outreach in each region to hear directly from members. We know you are feeling worn down and desperately in need of a fair wage increase.

 Dear Valued Member: 

Your bargaining committee had its first meeting with SAHO, the bargaining agent of the employer, on May 19, 2023. 

The first meeting was to discuss process and to set dates to exchange proposal packages. 

Discussions were respectful and collaborative. 

Our hope was to begin bargaining immediately, but the employer was not ready to bargain yet. 

Dear Valued Member:

Our collective agreement expires March 31, 2023. We have been preparing for the past year and are READY to bargain on your behalf.

On January 23, 2023, we sent the required formal notice to the employer of our intent to negotiate revisions to our collective bargaining agreement. We subsequently provided a selection of dates in March for the employer to choose for this process to begin. The employer did not respond. When we reminded them of our request, they responded to say they were not yet prepared for bargaining and would get back to us. We are still waiting to hear from them.

We are disappointed that the employer is not prepared to come to the table right now, but we will continue to pressure the employer to come to the bargaining table in a timely manner.

Dear Valued Member:

Your bargaining committee has just completed five membership meetings where we presented our proposal package. We recognize that on the heels of the holidays it is a difficult time to add in a union meeting, however, your support and participation are critical for our success at the bargaining table.

We would like to thank all those who attended. Your thoughtful feedback is invaluable as we work towards finalizing our proposals.

The bargaining committee has received an overwhelming endorsement for the proposals presented.

If you were unable to attend a presentation, please reach out to your local office. Your bargaining committee is committed to continuous, open communication with the membership; therefore, we would be happy to schedule more meetings in the new year to inform those who couldn't join us this time around.

 Dear Valued Member: 

As you will recall, your Local Executive met in June to work on your bargaining proposals. We needed more information from various people and groups such as research from CUPE staff and information from committees. 

We have now received that information and your Bargaining Committee will again be sitting down to review and finalize your proposals. We are preparing to present these proposals at upcoming virtual meetings. Details are forthcoming but save the date to make sure you can attend. The meeting link will be on www.cupe5430.ca in early December. 

The dates are:

• December 6 – 9:00-10:30 a.m.
• December 6 – 7:30-9:00 p.m.
• December 7 – 6:30-8:00 p.m. 
• December 10 – 9:30-11:00 a.m. 
• December 13 – 8:00-9:30 p.m. 

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We hope you are enjoying your summer and that you were able to take the vacation you were hoping for. We understand the realities of our workplaces right now, so we know many of you didn’t and we hope you reached out to your regional offices or the reps in your facilities for assistance where it was needed.

Your Bargaining Committee wanted to reach out to you to let know about some happenings in the last little while.

You are likely all aware of the AIMS implementation struggles over the last several years. It is a work in progress and appears to be slated for implementation on September 25, 2022.

You should also be aware that CUPE and the SHA recently negotiated a one-year collective agreement extension which included many provisions set to become implemented on October 23, 2022. These include CUPE-wide seniority, bidding rights and postings. This language was duly negotiated, agreed upon and ratified.

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Your Bargaining Committee continues to prepare for the next round of negotiations.
We recently spent four days reviewing the bargaining survey and assessing the 169 thoughtful and comprehensive bargaining
proposals we received.
Wages were identified as your unequivocal priority.
And they should be, based on a presentation prepared by CUPE Research. We were informed that despite the gloomy financial
reports the government keeps trying to have us believe, things are actually not so bad. Here are a few facts we learned:

• This year's projected deficit is $463 million – last year the projection was $2.6 billion
• The deficit is projected to be eliminated by the 2026-27 fiscal year
• The Conference Board of Canada, RBC Economics and BMO each project significant economic growth for Saskatchewan in
  2022 with the average being 5.9%
• The Conference Board of Canada projects that Saskatchewan will lead the nation in economic growth
• The Provincial Budget is forecasting a 3.7% and 2.5% increase in real GDP for 2022 and 2023 respectively

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 Since our last bargaining update, your Local Executive has been hard at work preparing for the upcoming round of negotiations. A big piece of this preparation has been listening to members' concerns and desires for the next collective agreement.

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Dear Valued Member:

The bargaining survey was sent out to you by email on February 25, 2022. There were some technical issues, which were resolved, giving you the ability to complete your survey. Just a reminder, the deadline to complete the survey is March 14, 2022.

If you have not yet received one please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and the survey link will be provided to you.

The fillable form for bargaining proposals is available on the website. To access this form, you must be a member. If you haven't signed up to view member documents, please do so on our website under tab called "member sign up".

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Dear Valued Member:

We are getting ready to bargain, again! This time is going to be a little different than ever before. Your Bargaining Committee has committed to keep you informed every step of the way. This is the first issue of your Bargaining Committee’s updates.

Here’s a quick recap of where we are at:

• In 2019, CUPE 5430 members like you voted to ratify the Bargaining Association Constitution. This document formalized a provincial Bargaining Association made up of the three provider unions – SGEU, SEIU-West and
• This document guides the process for bargaining and you can find it on the member portal of the CUPE 5430 website (https://www.cupe5430.ca/).

For many years, the three unions bargained many items together, such as Joint Job Evaluation language, wages and benefits. With the formation of the SHA and the fact that we all now have one employer, the three unions have committed to bargaining a single collective agreement for all three unions.

Next steps.... Read more