CUPE members visit legislature looking for meeting with Premier Dennis King

About a dozen health support workers showed up at the legislature Thursday to push for a meeting with Premier Dennis King, and ended up with a date for Monday. 

They were members of CUPE P.E.I., who work in health facilities doing things like maintenance and housekeeping.

The workers told reporters they were frustrated at being excluded from the government's plan to offer retention bonuses to many healthcare workers, announced back in the fall.

The provincial government's $8 million incentive program offered registered nurses, nurse practitioners, licensed practical nurses, paramedics, residential care workers, home support workers and patient care workers thousands of dollars for an agreement to stay in their jobs for at least one more year.  

Chris Lewis from the CUPE P.E.I. Health Council said his fellow union members are frustrated. 

"It's been a bit of a long road. We've been trying to meet with the King government since October 2022. We had a lot of requests to meet with Premier King, but it didn't materialize. So after many attempts and no real answers, we decided to reach out by coming to the legislature today," Lewis said. 

"Like every other area in healthcare, support service workers are suffering through shortages. And people are getting burnt out. We need ways to recruit more people, and retain the ones we have."'

The issue was also raised during Question Period by the Leader of the Opposition, Liberal MLA Hal Perry. 

Perry said he believes the King government has created what he called "two-tier health care" where some health-care workers get bonuses and incentives, while others do not. 

He pressed the Premier on why he wasn't meeting with CUPE on the issue. 

King replied that his job is to meet with as many Islanders as possible. 

"I would be absolutely willing and wanting to meet to talk about issues that we can help with ... I'm not trying to pass the blame onto admins, staff or whatever, but I don't know the daily intake of calls of people looking to meet with me or staff, for example. So I would go back again to talk to staff. But I would obviously want to have this meeting," he said. 

After question period, the premier did end up briefly chatting with the workers who had come to the legislature.

He promised a meeting on Monday to discuss how his government can better support health service workers, and recruit and retain more of them.

Lewis said he was satisfied with what he heard. 

"It's more than I could've hoped. I didn't think we'd land one this soon, but I'll take anything that comes our way, and we're very satisfied," he said of the Monday appointment. 

"The workers themselves are tired. They feel disconnected and that nobody cares about them. But the health-care system needs everyone."