Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 22, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba You can make a difference for Manitobans with cancer. 6{(y CancerCareManitoba � FOUNDATION Alf funds raised stay in Manitoba. DONATE TODAY cancercarefdn.mb.ca TOP NEWS A3 SATURDAY NOVEMBER 22, 2025 ● ASSOCIATE EDITOR, NEWS: STACEY THIDRICKSON 204-697-7292 ● CITY.DESK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM Nurses ‘done with unsafe working conditions,’ union says Thompson hospital grey-list vote a landslide A SECOND Manitoba hospital has been “grey-listed” after nurses voted overwhelmingly to discour- age colleagues from taking work at Thompson General Hospital until safe- ty concerns are addressed. Manitoba Nurses Union members at the Thompson hospital voted 97 per cent in favour of the move Friday. Grey-listing is a union tactic where members warn others about an employ- er failing to maintain professional stan- dards and advise against taking new positions there. The vote came after nurses at Win- nipeg’s Health Sciences Centre voted to grey-list their workplace in August. This is the first time two Manitoba hos- pitals have been grey-listed at the same time in the MNU’s 45-year history. “The members have spoken,” MNU president Darlene Jackson said after the vote Friday. “They’ve made it clear that they are done with unsafe work situations, and the expectation is that the employer is going to remedy that.” Voting took place Wednesday to Fri- day, and ballots were counted Friday afternoon. Unionized nurses began considering grey-listing the Thompson hospital last year, after a man fired a gun inside the hospital on Christmas Eve, and after a stabbing in the emergency waiting room in September. The MNU said the RCMP were called to the hospital more than 550 times in 2024. Jackson said Thompson General Hos- pital administration have reached out to MNU after the vote was announced and she expects conversations to begin quickly. If those conversations deteriorate, Jackson said, members will begin dis- couraging other nurses to work at the hospital. “For now, it’s really more about try- ing to come to an agreement with the employer,” she said. Health minister Uzoma Asagwara said institutional safety officers could be stationed at the Thompson hospital within weeks. The province commit- ted to hiring eight of the officers for Thompson in Tuesday’s throne speech. Job postings for four full-time positions and one part-time position were posted on the Northern Health Region’s ca- reers page on Friday. The province also plans to hire First Nations safety officers to monitor the hospital for added safety and security. “We need to make sure that health- care workers and nurses are safer at work — and patients and visitors. Our priority is taking steps that have never been taken before,” Asagwara said. The minister said the province would continue to take steps to improve safe- ty. “The union is going to do whatever they feel is necessary to do. And I cer- tainly respect nurses’ frustration and concerns around challenges they’re still facing in health care. I take that very seriously,” Asagwara said. Earlier this week, a spokesperson for the Northern Regional Health Author- ity said it planned to implement “secure and monitored” access to the hospital beginning Dec. 1. Thompson Mayor Colleen Smook said the circumstances that led to the hospi- tal being grey-listed are very concern- ing. “I’ve definitely got the nurses and doctors and the patients’ backs. I will support whatever they’re doing,” she said. Smook welcomed plans to employ institutional safety officers at the hos- pital, but noted it will take time to hire and train the initial officers, she said. She is trying to obtain more informa- tion from the province and Northern Health about their plans for the new security measures that will take effect next month. “There’s talk of metal detectors and that at the hospital,” Smook said. “It’s a shame to see us having to go that lock- down way.” She said Thompson’s council has worked with the current and previous provincial governments to do what it can to help recruit and retain staff in northern Manitoba’s largest city. The hospital has a lot of contract nurses, Smook said. “I don’t blame people for not coming here when there isn’t enough supports and staff at the hospital for them,” she said. Smook said Thompson’s hospital, at more than 50 years old, was not de- signed to be the regional facility that it is today. The city has lobbied the prov- ince to build a new hospital. MNU members voted to grey-list HSC in Winnipeg after a string of vio- lent incidents, including five sexual assaults, at or around the province’s largest hospital. Jackson said the MNU would “grey- list every hospital” if that’s what it took for safety to be taken seriously after a nurse was sexually assaulted in the parkade of St. Boniface Hospital, on Nov. 8. A memo was sent to staff Thursday from St. Boniface Hospital president and CEO Nicole Aminot saying the hospital had made numerous safety en- hancements in recent years and would “always consider doing more to help en- sure the safety of our staff.” The MNU has voted in favour of grey-listing six times in 45 years. Be- fore HSC, the most recent vote was at Dauphin Regional Health Centre in 2007. — with files from Chris Kitching and Nicole Buffie malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca MALAK ABAS FREE PRESS FILE PHOTO Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, says nurses in Thompson are fed up and want change. Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara says security should improve within weeks. GOOGLE STREET VIEW Manitoba Nurses Union members at Thompson General Hospital voted 97 per cent in favour of ‘grey-listing’ their workplace, amid ongoing unsafe working conditions, on Friday. ● LETT: HEAL THE RIFT /A4 ;