WINNIPEG — Health Sciences Centre nurses have voted to urge colleagues elsewhere to decline jobs and turn down shifts at the hospital because of ongoing safety concerns.
Manitoba Nurses Union members working at HSC voted in favour of “grey listing” the province’s largest hospital after a spate of sexual assaults that began last month and continued this week.
The vote, which began Wednesday and closed at 4 p.m. Friday, garnered 94 per cent support, union president Darlene Jackson said.
“I am so proud of the Health Sciences nurses for standing up, being counted and saying, ‘We are not accepting an unsafe situation any longer,’” Jackson said, speaking by phone minutes after voting closed.
Grey listing is one of the most serious actions in the union’s arsenal and “not utilized lightly,” Jackson said. She described the measure as a “last resort.”
It means members at the hospital will formally urge other nurses not to accept work there until safety demands made to the employer are met.
“This is basically saying to nurses that are there, to nurses who may want to go there, and to the public, that this employer does not provide a safe environment to either receive or provide care in,” Jackson said.
The union leader said more than 1,000 nurses participated in the vote. The action will not impact the jobs of the roughly 3,000 members currently working at HSC, she said.
The hospital will remain grey listed until the union and Shared Health can negotiate an agreement to address safety concerns, Jackson said.
The union is calling for: stricter screening and control of access points; requiring swipe cards to access hospital tunnels; the creation of an early alert system to warn staff members and patients about security incidents; a formal process for post-incident debriefs; and a formal review of security training and policies within 30 days.
It also wants police to be present on campus until there is greater coverage from institutional safety officers.
Dr. Chris Christodoulou, interim president and CEO of HSC, responded to the vote in a statement Friday evening.
He said Shared Health takes the vote seriously and met with a variety of stakeholders, including multiple union leaders, the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg Police Service and provincial officials Friday morning.
“It is our goal to ensure a collaborative and informed approach to workplace safety and well-being, guided by feedback from our partners, staff and community, and candid reflection,” Christodoulou wrote.
In a separate statement, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara called Friday’s meeting a “strong step forward in our collaborative efforts.”
“We are working together to ensure the site is safer while maintaining accessibility for patients and staff. A healthier community is a safer community, and all partners are aligned in finding the right balance to support both,” Asagwara said.
Christodoulou referenced more than a dozen security initiatives and upgrades the hospital has implemented at the inner-city campus in recent months.
He said the work is ongoing and evolving, and Shared Health is committed to meaningful action, including addressing the union recommendations.
Some nurses at the hospital welcomed the outcome of the vote.
“We’re asking for basic safety on campus, and we can’t get it through the regular routes,” said a nurse, who spoke with the Winnipeg Free Press under the condition of anonymity. “So it makes sense that it was such a high vote.”
The nurse said she voted in favour of grey listing and would warn prospective nurses about HSC’s safety issues if asked.
“I would say don’t come here until our employer has made this a safe facility to work in,” she said. “It’s patients, it’s the kids that are seen here and the parents that come with their kids. It’s everybody. Everyone’s at risk right now when you come to HSC.”
A second nurse, also speaking to the Free Press anonymously, said she, too, voted in favour of grey listing.
“I’m really hoping that it makes a positive change. I feel like nurses have been through enough with their workloads and working conditions, and now we have the added responsibility of keeping each other safe,” she said.
The vote closed hours after HSC officials sent a notice to staff members at 11 a.m., reporting a sexual assault — the sixth in recent weeks — had occurred on the campus.
WPS spokesman Const. Pat Saydak confirmed police were sent to the north side of William Avenue, across from the emergency department, just after 11 p.m. Thursday.
Investigators learned security staff found a female who had been sexually assaulted and took her into the hospital. Officers arrested a 39-year-old man a short time later. The suspect was released on an undertaking, Saydak said.
Police did not provide the victim’s age.
HSC officials also notified staff about a fake bomb threat that prompted a police response on Thursday.
A patient was being transferred from the Crisis Response Centre to the emergency department when they indicated they were in possession of an explosive, said the email notice, viewed by the Free Press.
Saydak confirmed police responded to the incident and it was quickly resolved. Nobody was arrested, he said.
The latest incidents come after five women were sexually assaulted on or around the hospital grounds on July 2.
Police arrested a 28-year-old man the next day and charged him with five counts of sexual assault, three counts of assault and one count each of sexual interference and carrying a concealed weapon.
The MNU has resorted to grey listing only five times in its 45-year history. The most recent case was at Dauphin Regional Health Centre in 2007.
Members voted in favour of grey listing at HSC in 2020 amid a number of unresolved grievances, but the employer agreed to work on the issues and the measure was not imposed, Jackson said.
» Winnipeg Free Press
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