Manitoba Nurses Union

10/20/2026

“Never accept the first offer.”

You’ve probably seen this advice online. But applying it to a tentative collective agreement overlooks the work it took to get there.

By the time a tentative agreement reaches members for review and voting, your bargaining team has spent countless hours, weeks, even months exchanging proposals, challenging concessions, pushing back and fighting for improvements.

You’re seeing the result of tireless work and difficult negotiations - not the opening offer.

Collective bargaining takes skill, preparation, and judgment. Priorities are set from data collected in member surveys. Then, experienced negotiators work alongside elected nurses who bring frontline knowledge to the table. Together, they weigh trade-offs, assess when to push harder and determine whether a proposed settlement deserves your consideration.

However, just because the committee is presenting a tentative agreement doesn’t mean members should accept it without questions. Your scrutiny matters. Your vote matters. The decision is yours.

That’s where education is imperative. Attend information sessions. Read the bargaining updates. Look at the agreement as a whole, weighing the full package of gains and compromises rather than allowing any single issue to determine your decision. Ask your Provincial Collective Bargaining Committee representative how the agreement came to be.

Make an informed decision based on what is in the full agreement and what it means for nurses collectively. Your bargaining team has worked to bring you an agreement. Your power is in understanding it - and casting an informed vote.

10/19/2026

As always, I'm available to discuss this or anything else further. Email me directly at [email protected].

10/16/2026

It’s official: Seven Oaks nurses have decided to enact grey listing, making it the third Manitoba hospital where nurses have taken this courageous step to stand up against unsafe workplaces.

Grey listing is a collective accountability measure used when serious workplace concerns persist without adequate action taken to correct them.

Several months ago, nurses at Seven Oaks voted in favour of grey listing, and gave the employer ample opportunity to address several specific conditions before moving forward. Some limited progress was made, but too many key concerns remain unresolved.

Most importantly, safe nurse-to-patient ratios remain far from reality. Manitoba now has legislation establishing a framework for minimum nurse-to-patient ratios, but those ratios still need to become meaningful, enforceable improvements at the bedside.

Seven Oaks nurses are standing strong and taking action for safe workloads and better working conditions that will support the best possible patient care. ✊

10/16/2026

10/16/2026

Minister, does “always” include when you’re in power?

“On this side of the House we will always stand up for workers in Manitoba.”

Those were Uzoma Asagwara’s words supporting healthcare workers bargaining for a fair contract, said in spring of 2022.

A clear promise. No qualifications. No exceptions.

Today, as health ministers gather in Winnipeg, including the Federal Minister of Health, that promise deserves scrutiny.

Because standing up for workers means respecting their rights when they exercise them. Including the right to strike. Including when that strike becomes uncomfortable for government.

The Manitoba government’s intervention in the Dynacare dispute helped force striking workers back to work. How does that square with “always” standing up for them?

And where is that commitment when union leaders are seeking meaningful collaboration with the minister to bring forward the concerns of the people keeping health care running? When MNU meets with the minister now, meaningful dialogue can be difficult to achieve. Meetings need time, attention, and a willingness to work through difficult conversations, even when they are uncomfortable.

Where’s the sincerity? The accountability? The follow through?

Across this country, nurses and other healthcare workers have answers that ministers need to hear. They know where staffing is failing, where patients are waiting, and what it will take to keep experienced workers in the system. Their voices belong at the table. Their rights deserve respect beyond a speech in the legislature.

Today’s meeting is an opportunity to make concrete commitments, and explain how workers will help shape the decisions that follow.

Minister, “always” was your word. Workers deserve to see you honour it.

10/15/2026

Minister, are the alarm bells still ringing?

“The numbers at the Grace Hospital should sound the alarm bells for absolutely everybody.”

Those were Uzoma Asagwara’s words in 2022 about the overtime rates at one Winnipeg hospital. The message was clear: the numbers demanded attention—and action.

We agree. That is why we are looking at the latest available overtime data.

The most recent month MNU has complete overtime data for is July 2026. In that month, across the province, the health regions reported over 108,000 hours of nurse overtime. That’s nearly 3,500 overtime hours across the province PER DAY.

Behind those hours are nurses staying past the end of their shifts. Plans cancelled. Time with family lost. Less time to rest before returning to care for patients.

Overtime can fill an unexpected gap. When the system keeps depending on it, nurses are being asked to carry a staffing crisis through their own exhaustion.

Minister, you understood that troubling numbers were a warning when you were in opposition. They deserve the same urgency now that you are responsible for the response.

The alarm does not stop sounding because you are the one expected to answer it.

10/14/2026

Minister, when does the responsibility become yours?

“Health care is a mess. HSC has reported a 10-hour wait to be seen. Doctors and nurses are reporting horrific conditions that they're working in.”

Back in 2022 Uzoma Asagwara’s question to the health minister of the day, Audrey Gordon, was direct: “Why won't the minister accept responsibility? Why is she blaming others...?”

It is a question Manitobans deserve to hear Asagwara answer now.

No one is denying that this government inherited a healthcare system in crisis. Nurses lived through the cuts, the closures and the consequences. They know exactly what this government walked into.

But an inherited crisis does not excuse a government from responsibility for what happens on its watch.

At what point does the minister acknowledge that the approach they have taken is not delivering the improvements patients and nurses need? At what point do worsening conditions prompt a change in direction?

Patients waiting for care cannot afford an endless argument about who broke the system. Nurses working through another understaffed shift need more than a history lesson.

They need leadership willing to examine its own decisions, listen to the frontline and change course when the results fall short.

Minister, you once demanded that your predecessor stop blaming others and accept responsibility.

Manitobans are entitled to hold YOU to the same standard.

10/13/2026

As always, I'm available to discuss this or anything else further. Email me directly at [email protected].

10/09/2026

TGIF: Thank Goodness I Fight - for Patients ✊

Behind every lab test is someone waiting for answers. Behind every shift is a healthcare worker trying to give patients the care they deserve. Our healthcare system depends on those workers. It also depends on their ability to speak up when something needs to change.

Collective bargaining and labour action give workers a way to fight for fair wages and better working conditions. In healthcare, those demands can also make care better for Manitobans:

• Staff ratios that allow time to assess, monitor and care for every patient.
• Limits on overtime that protect against exhaustion.
• Strong infection prevention and control measures.
• Safety protections that help prevent violence and keep workers and patients safe.

Working conditions are patient-care conditions.

Fair wages matter, too. We cannot expect skilled professionals to keep a struggling system running while denying them a fair deal—or weakening their ability to secure one. If we want healthcare workers to stay in Manitoba, we need to give them reasons to stay. Not just lip service in media scrums.

This week, we examined the Manitoba government’s intervention in the Dynacare strike and what it means for workers fighting for fair pay. Now, that fight extends to Parliament. The Canadian Labour Congress warns that proposed changes in federal Bill C-39 threaten the right to strike in federally regulated workplaces. It is calling on MPs to remove those restrictions and protect meaningful collective bargaining.

Take action. Send a letter to your MP through the Workers Together campaign and demand protection for workers’ right to strike: https://ow.ly/rzZL50ZVBWI

When healthcare workers fight for the conditions to do their jobs well, they are fighting for patients, too. That is a fight worth standing behind. ✊

10/08/2026

What happened to the NDP?

The NDP’s roots are deep in the labour movement: collective action, strong unions, public services and working people having more say over their workplaces and their lives.

That history includes Manitoba governments that turned principles into policy. Howard Pawley’s government advanced pay equity and reforms to help workers secure collective agreements. These were tangible efforts to give working people more power.

Now let’s consider Dynacare.

In 2025, the current NDP government signed a new five-year contract with the private, American-owned company. Under the previous agreement, provincial funding had increased by approximately $11.7 million between 2018 and 2025. According to the Manitoba Association of Healthcare Professionals (MAHCP), that additional funding was more than five to six times what workers received in wage increases over the same period.

In other words, more public money went to the company. Workers continued to fall behind.

The government says it acted to protect patient care. Nurses understand that responsibility. But protecting patients also means addressing the wages and working conditions that keep skilled professionals in our healthcare system.

The Labour Board’s October 1 ruling found that an essential component of Dynacare’s services must be maintained during job action. It did not resolve the wage inequity at the heart of this dispute.

These workers deserve a government prepared to hold a publicly funded employer accountable for fair wages.

The NDP was built to give working people more power and strengthen public services. Those principles should guide its decisions in government, too.