New Brunswick nurses vote overwhelmingly in favour of strike
CBC
New Brunswick nurses have voted resoundingly in favour of a strike.
About 9,000 members of the New Brunswick Nurses Union began voting last week, with votes being counted all day Monday at the Delta Hotel in Fredericton. By late afternoon, union president Paula Doucet confirmed the results of the three bargaining units' votes.
Union members voted 92 per cent in favour of a strike vote combined.
"Our nursing home nurses voted 89 per cent in favour of a strike. Our Part Three nurses — so all of Vitalité, Horizon and [Extramural] — was 91 per cent and our nurse managers and supervisors 96 per cent," Doucet told CBC News, noting the mood was "very jubilant."
The union and the province are to return to the bargaining table on Tuesday, the first time they have done so since late September.
Doucet declined to comment Monday on what the union will be seeking during bargaining, citing a "media blackout."
"But I think anybody just has to look at recent media reports of working conditions" across the province, she said.
"Right now for a nurse in New Brunswick, it hasn't been great."
Doucet noted no strike or other job action is planned at this time.
"We would have to give seven days notice before we take any job action," she said. "In the spirit of going back to the table, that would be where we would want to get our deal, is at the table and not out on the sidewalk."
The union represents 9,000 licensed practical nurses, registered nurses and nurse practitioners. They have been without a contract since Dec. 31, 2018, and members have twice rejected tentative agreements.
Doucet has repeatedly warned of the pressures of nursing shortages and the increasing reality of burnout, particularly amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The decision comes just weeks after a strike vote by provincial workers who are members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
More than 20,000 public servants, including school bus drivers, educational support staff and workers in transportation, corrections and the community college system, went on strike in late October for more than two weeks.
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