Manitoba NDP crushes health care workers’ strike

15 comments

• Someone9

  I am of the belief that any back to work legislation should come with a major penalty to the employer. For a private company this could be in the form of a huge fine, but if it's a public body it should come with the firing of the executives. If a group of workers is too essential for them to have the right to strike, then allowing negotiations to break down shows gross incompetence on the part of the negotiation team.

  • m0darn1

    Yeah I agree, but I don't know how you can make the fine scale appropriately for different organizations. Maybe the government and union should get an ownership stake.

    • Someone2

      That's why firing the executives would be so much more effective, I just don't know how that could work with the government forcing a company to fire someone. That being said, I also don't know how they should be able to force workers to work, so maybe that could be some sort of condition.

      • kent_eh1

        firing the executives would be so much more effective, I just don't know how that could work with the government forcing a company to fire someone.

        Especially someone in another country working for a foreign owned company.

        Ideally the contract should not have been renewed and another (Canadian and not a for-profit company) service provider hired.

• melsaskca7

  NDP is more about people than money, unlike the regular parties. They are between a rock and a hard place. Getting those cancer results in helps the people that are currently sick and possibly dying. That would be the priority and correct decision in almost any case, wouldn't it? Most of these responses on here seem like "gotcha!" instead of reasonable discourse.

  • Rat_in_a_hat1

    Definitely a rock and a hard place. Healthcare (including it's downstream work) should have never been privatized to begin with.

    While it's still a tough choice, Wab should also take steps to make sure that the negotiations remain public and transparent. The Manitoba NDP need to put their weight behind the workers while they go back to work.

• grte17

  Even Eby hasn't gone this far. Pretty disappointing from Kinew. It also gives Liberals a convenient thing to point at to make the NDP look like hypocrites on labour rights, so thanks for that Wab.

  • Tempest14

    Problem is that it doesn't make them look like hypocrites, it shows they're absolutely 100% hypocrites. This kind of shit is how the NDP just never gains actual power, let alone an actual left leaning party.

    Feels like the NDP is also a Captured Party, leaving us with no one to actually represent us.

    • grey_maniac13

      Did anyone actually listen to Kinew's explanation? This is still recovering from the deliberate crippling and beginnings of privatization the conservatives implemented, and the NDP is working to bring the lab infrastructure out of private hands so it can be better staffed and run.

      Having been a consultant sitting in those meetings where conservatives explicitly stated that intent, I am intimately aware how hamstrung the NDP were. I am also surprised by the hyperbolic spin chosen for the headline. Almost as if someone has an agenda to make the Manitoba NDP look as bad as possible without any nuance whatsoever.

      • Tempest3

        So, Conservatives bad (which is honestly true nearly 100% of the time), but we can't let people choose to strike because...the company is run poorly because of the Conservatives?

        If you don't even KNOW if someone's job is an "Essential Service" then you shouldn't be able to stand in the way of a Strike. What the NDP does know, is that Dynacare is dog shit. As such, let them eat crow with strikers instead of forcing strikers to work for people you know for absolute fact are dog shit.

        As far as it feeling like there's an Agenda against the NDP, that'd be because there is, Post Media owns the majority of news in this country and they're MAGA losers doing their best to sow discord. That said, the NDP shot themselves in the face here (and also very recently in BC).

        • karlhungus2

          Wrt your second paragraph, it seems like the decision was: support these workers and let citizens possibly die from something preventable or force them back to work.

          It'd be nice if there was a law that the company has to pay union demands if workers are deemed essential. Or non union employees receive no paycheque/shares until negotiations are done.

          Or

          You can't be private AND essential

          • Tempest2

            If it's essential to the survival of our citizenry, there are zero excuses for it being private in the first place, and the NDP should have been looking into making them a public company well before striking was even being talked about. Instead they're just saying they "might" look into it, which translated from Politician to English, means they have no intention in making them public at all.

            While I understand that these workers striking may put lab results on delay, that's the cost of Privatizing healthcare. It is not the fault of the people striking, it is the fault of the Private company. That's literally why the entire idea of socialized healthcare doesn't include private interests.

            Everyone that's been alive and paying attention long enough knows that the only way to accomplish any goal against the Wealthy and Political classes is a painful process and that pain is not directed at anyone that deserves it. The Political class only cares about the rest of us, when it's in their interest to do so. Meaning it has to both serve the Wealthy and Political classes, or they simply ignore us. The pain caused by striking here is to the people needing their test results, that's a terrible thing no doubt, but to get the Political class to move in any way against the Wealthy class, pain MUST be inflicted. It sucks, but it's the reality of how our systems are setup. It's also why things like Protesting for Palestine does absolutely nothing at the government level (other than label you as a problem anyway). Protests that don't cause pain, don't get results.

            • Rat_in_a_hat1

              The lab test work was publicly run, then privatized. Wab said that he's asking that it be made public again, which isn't cheap. Anything privatized is a ticking time bomb and this one blew up in Wab's face.

              I agree, the only way to extract rights is by hurting the capitalist class. I just feel bad for the patients because lab results are a life or death situation, and that's being used to force people back to work. If the company was held responsible for the delayed work (like penalty fees) or legal liable for someone's death, then I'm sure we would have seen a much quicker turnaround (maybe something the Manitoba NDP should put into law).

              If only it were the good ol' days of beating your employer until they agreed to pay better wages.

      • karlhungus7

        A link with the explanation might help: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/dynacare-premier-wab-kinew-9.7337301

        "The situation is not great. This company is making a mess," he said. "I think it's pretty clear I'm not happy with them. At the same time, nobody should be trying to use people's health care as leverage."

        Okay... this helps.

• Rentlar3

  https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/dynacare-labour-board-essential-decision-9.7365238

  Btw on Oct 1, 2026, the board issued the final ruling saying those workers are essential. So to use super serious legal terminology, those workers' rights are cooked.