Acute care nurses file for conciliation after contract talks stall

The unions representing more than 10,000 acute care nurses have filed for conciliation after contract talks with Nova Scotia'shealth authorityand the IWK Health Centre stalled on Thursday.

In a news release, representatives for the Council of Nursing Unions say they're looking for a new contract that will improve the work-life issues for their members, and provide competitive wages and benefits.

The council is made up of representativesfrom the Nova Scotia Nurses' Union, CUPE, Unifor and the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union.

"We all know that there is a shortage of nurses.That's not just in Nova Scotia, it'sacross the country," said Janet Hazelton, president of the nurses' union.

"So we need wages and compensation that's going to keep us competitive. Those are the things that nurses were telling us that they needed in our new collective agreement, and so we're hoping that we'll be able to achieve this."

The bargaining unit includes registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and nurse practitioners who work in hospitals, satellite clinics and in public health throughout the province's acute and community care sector.

The group has been without a contract since November 2020.

The council held 29 bargaining sessions with nursing representatives and their employerwhich Hazelton said had been productive but negotiations came to a halt Thursday when they failed to reach an agreement.

"We switched into another process where we talked more about money and increments and raises ...and we just ran into a place where wehad an impasse," Hazelton said.

In March, Premier Tim Houston announced that nurses who had worked full-time in the past yearwould receive a $10,000 retention bonus.

During a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Finance Minister AllanMacMastersaid there's a connection between the bonus and the bargaining. That's because the period covered by the contract under negotiation "covers some of the same periodthat bonus applied to."

The unions will now file for conciliation in hopes a resolution can be reached, Hazelton said.

"We all want a tentative agreement. We all want a contract that nurses are happy with," she said. "Everybody has that agenda, and so that's wheremy hope is, that's where we will land once the conciliation starts."