‘The fight for public health care is on,’ says president of Registered Nurses’ Union Newfoundland and Labrador

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — In a speech at the beginning of the Registered Nurses’ Union (RNU) 28 Biennial Convention, RNU president Yvette Coffey declared that “the fight for public health care is on.”

Next week, the RNU will enter contract negotiations. It’s a “traditional round of bargaining” at the moment and there have only been preliminary discussions.

While the RNU doesn’t know where negotiations could lead, “the lines of communication are open,” Coffey said.

“I would hope that we would not be at the table for a long time, because quite frankly, the people of Newfoundland and Labrador can’t wait for us to retain the people who are in the system and stop the bleeding of health-care professionals,” Coffey said in an interview after her speech.

Whether a health-care system, which many have described as in crisis, can handle job action, Coffey says there isn’t enough core staff to manage the workload as it is.