More than 300 appointments in the Saskatoon Health Region will have to be re-scheduled. That's because specialized health care workers were off the job Friday.

Picket lines went up at Royal University Hospital and City Hospital as part of rotating strikes by the Health Sciences Association. There was hope earlier this week that a new deal could be reached. But that was dashed when negotiations between the association and SAHO broke down.

Picketing began at 8:00 a.m. outside RUH and City Hospital in Saskatoon. They included dietitians, respiratory therapists, and social workers, among others. The union says the rotating strikes are because SAHO rejected their counterproposal of a 14.5 per cent pay raise over four years.

Susan Antosh, the SAHO president, says the union's proposal was unreasonable. "That counterproposal asked for resources far in excess of what is reasonable or necessary to maintain market competitiveness. And so we went back and said 'no, that's not what we're talking about."

SAHO is sticking to its offer of an average of 11 per cent over four years.

Cathy Dickson, the HSAS president, says the offer isn't enough. "They've made market adjustments to several professions and left about eight per cent of our membership with 7.5 per cent which, at this point, is less than the cost of living."

The rotating strike has already affected patients, including many appointments for children with special needs.

At the health region, Karen Newman says many appointments had to be cancelled. "At this point in time we are still gathering our information, but it looks like there's about 349 treatments or appointments at this time that have had to be cancelled."

But the union says the health region didn't have to cancel that many appointments.

"Over 60 per cent of our people are essential so there's a good possibility services will be disrupted but not to cancel that many appointments," says Dickson.

The union says it plans to escalate job action, meaning there will be more members walking off the job --but it's not known when, where or for how long.

 

 

With files from the Canadian Press