Clinic staff ratify deal

The Fort Frances Community Clinic staff have ratified a contract that will help narrow the wage gap among local health care workers, a union spokesman said.
“The biggest change we wanted to make was to move forward with equalizing wage differences between health care workers in the community, and we believe this is the first step,” said C.U.P.E. national representative Danny Scheibli.
The four-year deal will hike the wages of the clinic’s Registered Nurse Practitioners by $5.50 over the contract while all other positions will see a 75 cent/hour wage hike.
While the overall wage increases weren’t as high as the union had been hoping for, Scheibli assured Local 65.08 members that management is committed to bettering the clinic’s situation over the long haul.
“The board assured us that in four years when the contract is up, we won’t be right back where we started with wages,” Scheibli said.
“We will still be behind Rainycrest and the hospital, but we are moving forward and that is the goal,” he added.
Fort Frances Community Clinic manager Marlis Bruyere agreed the new contract will help bridge the wage gap between health care workers, but would not comment on specific details yesterday.
“We are really please we could reach a deal relatively easy and are happy to be moving forward,” Bruyere said.
Only 73 percent of the Local 65.08 members voted in favour of the contract.
“The numbers reflected some staff’s dissatisfaction with what we got, but most understood the biggest step was accomplished with the board’s commitment,” Scheibli said.
The new contract also included employee benefits while on maternity leave.
The union initially was looking for supplementary pay while on maternity leave but agreed on 75 percent employer-paid benefits, Scheibli noted.
“We thought with a predominantly female staff benefits would be important to their families,” he said.