WINNIPEG — A tentative contract deal has been reached for security staff at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre.
The agreement between the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority still needs to be ratified.
Union president Michelle Gawronsky says security employees are to vote on the proposal Tuesday and Wednesday.
She says it will be back to the bargaining table if the deal isn't approved.
A strike date has been set for Dec. 22.
Security staff at the hospital have gone without a new contract for roughly 3 1/2 years.
Gawronsky says their biggest concern is retention.
“The danger and the situations that they find they are in protecting staff, visitors and patients puts them ... in very high-risk situations and unfortunately their wages didn’t reflect that," she said Monday.
"People that came into work there didn’t stay very long and used it as a stepping stone to get into the RCMP (or) city police. Or once they realized the danger they would have to put themselves in to continue with employment, they just left and found other jobs.”
