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![\"CAROL](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/4528220_web1_IMG_6537.jpg\")
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CAROL SANDERS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n
Bozena Turczynowicz retired last month after working for Dynacare for 26 years, and showed up at an information picket outside the Dynacare laboratory on King Edward Street Wednesday. \u201cI\u2019m here to support all my colleagues because they\u2019re fighting for a just cause.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Her application says that the public health care system doesn\u2019t have the capacity to fill the testing void that would be created by a Dynacare strike.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Dynacare said it supports the minister\u2019s application to the labour board.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe welcome this step, as it reflects the same commitment to our employees and the patients we serve that has guided Dynacare throughout this dispute.\u00a0Our employees are the reason 1.2 million Manitobans can access community laboratory services, and we will participate in the Labour Board process to support our shared interest ensuring patients have continuous access to laboratory services.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is no essential services agreement between the private company and its workers, who are represented by the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals. The union has set a strike deadline of 6 a.m. on Sept 8 over its demand for wage parity with their public-sector counterparts who work at Shared Health labs.<\/p>\n
Bozena Turczynowicz, who retired last month after working 26 years for Dynacare at several collection sites, took part in a lunch-time information picket outside the company\u2019s laboratory on King Edward Street on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main reason is wages and the huge gap between Dynacare workers and Shared Health workers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here to support all my colleagues because they\u2019re fighting for a just cause,\u201d she said. \u201cThe main reason is wages and the huge gap between Dynacare workers and Shared Health workers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The union said Dynacare\u2019s final offer, which was submitted Friday, fails to close the 20 to 50 per cent wage gap with public-sector workers. Conciliation ended once Dynacare rejected the union\u2019s counter proposal.<\/p>\n
Turczynowicz said a Dynacare collection site can take blood or collect urine from as many as 600 patients a day, and there aren\u2019t enough staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s non-stop. Everybody\u2019s just burned out. You are on your feet all day long and you have to be really fast,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The minister asked the labour board this week to deem Dynacare lab services as essential and issue an interim order that all services provided by Dynacare in Manitoba continue until the board makes its final ruling.<\/p>\n
In March, the company and the union had agreed that non-emergent lab tests are not essential, so no essential services agreement would be required in the event of a labour disruption.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s non-stop. Everybody\u2019s just burned out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The minister\u2019s application to the labour board Tuesday said the service provided by the company \u201cis a critical component of Manitoba\u2019s health-care system.\u201d Dynacare performs more than 24 million laboratory tests and 1.3 million blood collections annually at its 22 cites in Winnipeg, Brandon, Winkler, and surrounding communities, the application said.<\/p>\n
It included affidavits from the chief provincial public health officer, Dr. Brent Roussin; the chief operating officer of Shared Health diagnostics, Dr. Abdulrazaq Sokoro; and Dynacare chief medical and scientific officer, Dr. Jenisa Naidoo.<\/p>\n
They cited the huge volume of tests conducted by the private company daily that are crucial to the delivery of health care.<\/p>\n
Naidoo said the tests support the detection and management of a variety of medical conditions, including kidney disease, diabetes, infection, sepsis, leukemia, anemia, bleeding disorders, thyroid and liver disease, cardiovascular risk, and cancer.<\/p>\n
At the union\u2019s information picket Wednesday, president Jason Linklater said giving the workers wage parity would provide stability in the health-care system.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis conversation needs to return back to these people who are being exploited by a private company.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe part that bothers me most about this entire thing is it has completely removed the focus away from the people doing this very important work and the discrepancy and wages between the public sector and them,\u201d Linklater said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis conversation needs to return back to these people who are being exploited by a private company, an American corporation that is 100 per cent funded by the government, that is not paying wages that are fair or commensurate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals Jason Linklater<\/p>\n Linklater said the company has no incentive to return to the bargaining table following the minister\u2019s appeal to the labour board.<\/p>\n A government official speaking on background said the province passed legislation in 2024 that bans the use of replacement workers during a lockout or strike with the understanding that services that are essential to the health and welfare of Manitobans, and the administration of justice, continue to be provided.<\/p>\n carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Carol Sanders Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTYLER SEARLE \/ FREE PRESS FILES <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Legislature reporter
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