Northerners are frustrated with the lack of progress on many issues we are experiencing with healthcare in the NWT.

ItSA国际影视传媒檚 no secret that our healthcare system is in crisis, and repeated calls for change seem to fall on deaf ears.

Most of the issues we hear about from UNW members in healthcare boil down to management decisions. Calling for more accountability from the NWT Health and Social Services Authority leadership is something MLAs can and should be doing. The motion that passed in the legislative assembly on March 13 to conduct a SA国际影视传媒渃omprehensive reviewSA国际影视传媒� of healthcare management and the GNWTSA国际影视传媒檚 labour policies is a positive move forward.

What MLAs should not do is interfere in how workers organize themselves. Taking away the voice of unionized workers through legislation is an overreach that will create more problems than it fixes SA国际影视传媒� especially if that legislation is drafted without any knowledge of how unions work.

The contents of a draft bill tabled by MLA Shauna Morgan on March 14 that seeks to pull nurses out of the GNWT bargaining unit are problematic for several reasons.

First and foremost is the assumption that the GNWT has the jurisdiction to dictate how the Union of Northern Workers (UNW) and Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) organize their members.

To put it simply: the government cannot legislate PSAC to create a new component for specific workers. UNW and PSAC are member-driven unions, which means that their leadership and structures are determined by members. Only PSAC can determine who is or is not eligible to organize under its umbrella.

The draft bill also fails to acknowledge that there are nurses in the NWT who are not GNWT employees. For years, the UNW has been lobbying the GNWT to have healthcare workers at Hay River Health and Social Services Authority (HRHSSA) brought under the Public Service Act. This would standardize pay and benefits for many healthcare workers across the NWT and reduce competition between the two health authorities.

Pulling GNWT nurses out of the bargaining unit before that work is done will seriously complicate that effort. It would keep the NWT in a two-tiered system that works against more effective recruitment and retention.

ItSA国际影视传媒檚 also important to remember that many front-line healthcare workers are not nurses. These allied healthcare professionals share many of the same concerns and workplace issues as nurses and care very much about the ramifications of this proposed bill and the impacts it will have on workplace morale, co-worker relationships and the delivery of healthcare overall.

Right to strike provides maximum leverage

The rationales provided by Morgan in her supporting documents are also confusing and contradictory.

For example, she states that as a smaller bargaining unit with no right to strike, nurses would somehow have more bargaining leverage SA国际影视传媒� but she doesnSA国际影视传媒檛 explain how. The reality is that there is no bargaining leverage more powerful than the right to strike.

She states that the NWT and Nunavut are the only jurisdictions in Canada where nurses are lumped in with other workers SA国际影视传媒� this is simply not true.

In just one example, nurses in Ontario are represented by four different unions, with a variety of diverse bargaining units SA国际影视传媒� some comprised entirely of nurses, some combining different healthcare professions and some where nurses are in bargaining units along with janitorial, maintenance and other workers in healthcare settings.

Morgan claims that only a separate collective agreement will allow nurses to bargain for items specific to their profession, such as workplace safety and patient ratios. In fact, appendix A10 of the GNWT collective agreement is dedicated to healthcare workers and addresses many working conditions and benefits specific to nurses and the different situations across the territories.

She implies that her private member's bill would not compel the government to spend any public money. But establishing a new bargaining unit would, in fact, come at a significant monetary cost, especially in lawyerSA国际影视传媒檚 fees. One of the rationales for bringing HRHSSA into the public service is that it would save the GNWT money on bargaining costs because it would no longer be running parallel negotiations.

The proposed bill and accompanying documents also omit some important information, such as what happens if this bill actually passes?

Her incorrect assumptions about the structures in place for unionized workers in the NWT and the piecemeal approach to deciding which workers should be in what bargaining unit will create serious gaps in representation and workplace protections.

In MorganSA国际影视传媒檚 words, her proposed bill SA国际影视传媒渋s intended simply to allow for a separate bargaining unit to be established for nurses.SA国际影视传媒� But nothing about establishing a new bargaining unit is as simple as she implies. A little research would go a long way.

The UNW is not opposed to change. In fact, members coming together for collective action is a sign of a healthy union. But at the end of the day, any decisions about how union members organize must be made by union members.

Allowing MLAs to make decisions about how bargaining units are structured takes away the voice of the workers they're claiming to help, especially when those MLAs are blatantly unaware of the subject matter theySA国际影视传媒檙e meddling in.

If we want to fix our healthcare system, we need to work together, not against each other. We look forward to participating in the comprehensive healthcare review that the legislative assembly has voted to undertake, and to bringing forward the concerns and ideas that we have been hearing from all our healthcare members.