‘Beyond broken but not beyond repair’: Two weeks before contract negotiations, hundreds of nurses rally in downtown St. John’s

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — From the moment six busloads of nurses arrived outside the CLB Armoury in downtown St. John’s for a rally Wednesday, Oct. 26, the energy was palpable.

On the inside, it was no different, with speeches having to pause every other sentence as Registered Nurses’ Union (RNU) members and supporters broke into cheers, applause and chants of “Beyond broken but not beyond repair,” a slogan RNU president Yvette Coffey later revealed is part of a new media campaign.

When Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions president Linda Silas took the stage, the applause reached a peak.

“We should be calling a general strike in this country and see what they would do without us,” Silas said to loud applause. “I appreciate the work of Premier (Andrew) Furey and Minister (Tom) Osborne, but you have literally just dipped your toes into retaining the nursing workforce in this country and this province. You cannot stop and that’s the message. We need to build that fire under their asses to make sure that they do not stop.”