Public health nurses at the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit are on the verge of a strike.
The Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) issued a statement Thursday evening about mediation with management at the health unit and said it has not gone well.
"We are deeply disappointed that management has not made any significant movement on crucial issues for this group of 80 nurses who provide care to the most vulnerable people in our communities, despite getting a nearly five per cent increase in municipal funding for the health unit this year," the statement read.
Barb Deter, part of the nurses' bargaining team, told BlackburnNews.com on Monday that management at the health unit recently walked away from the bargaining table and refused to address fair wages.
However, the health unit said a week after that it was the nurses who walked away from the table.
ONA said it was ready to reach a deal that's both respectful of nurses' work and reasonable for the health unit.
Negotiators with the board of health have given the nurses' bargaining team a final offer and union members will vote on it on March 7. Details of the offer aren't being publicly released because ONA wants its members to see it first.
Nurse practitioners, public health nurses, and registered practical nurses at the health unit could be on strike or locked out on March 8 at 12:01 a.m. if a deal is not reached. The union added that the nurses struggle with that because of their "unwavering commitment to their clients".
"We encourage health unit management to come back to the table to negotiate a fair collective agreement for nurses before next Thursday to avoid a strike," ONA said.
The nurses provide a wide range of services for nearly 400,000 residents in Windsor-Essex, including a large population of refugees.
The nurses have been without a contract since March 31, 2018.
