“Same Care, Same Pay: Support Our LPNs” Campaign

Good afternoon,

Our Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) at the former Capital District Health Authority (CDHA) have led the way with their long-standing fight for appropriate pay for their increased scope of work. Now, we all need to make sure this is extended to the rest of their LPN colleagues working to keep Nova Scotians safe and healthy.

Today, we are launching a campaign to ensure government and employers do the right thing and ensure all Licensed Practical Nurses in Nova Scotia receive equal pay: “Same Care, Same Pay: Support Our LPNs”

We are calling on all LPNs to do their part and:

1)   Participate in our telephone town hall meeting tonight at 7:30 p.m.

2)   Add our “Same Care, Same Pay” frame to your Facebook profile picture (visit the NSGEU Facebook page to find our campaign frame!)

3)   Print our poster and take a selfie holding it! Share your selfie with #SameCareSamePay

4)   Send a letter to politicians and CEOs of NSHA & IWK via our customizable online form. Please make sure you share this form with your friends and family members via email and social media, and ask them to show their support for you by taking this simple action.

5)   More importantly, please take a moment to call your MLA! While inundating our elected officials with emails is effective, it is much harder for politicians to ignore a phone call from a constituent. We are asking you to try and call daily, until this matter is resolved: “A CALL A DAY UNTIL THEY PAY!”

To find your MLA’s contact information, please visit https://enstools.electionsnovascotia.ca/edinfo2012/ and enter your address. Once you know who your MLA is, their contact information is listed here.

Here are a few key points you may want to raise on your call with them:

• Tell them about the work you do and how your scope of work has changed over the years;
• Tell them how it makes you feel knowing that your colleagues working in different settings/hospitals will be making significantly more than others doing the same work;
• Ask why it’s appropriate that all MLAs receive the same base pay, while LPNs will not;
• Explain how difficult it will now be to recruit and retain LPNs in areas that will be lower-paid, like long-term care, home care, public health, the IWK, and rural hospitals;
• In October, during the Crown Attorneys’ strike, Premier Stephen McNeil said, “We don’t go into one group and say we’re going to give you a 17% pay raise and then go to someone else and say by the way you’re not worth that. How is that reasonable for anyone?”;
• Point out how insulting it is to have to fight for equal pay, particularly during a pandemic: it’s time to pay our “healthcare heroes!”

The other healthcare unions representing LPNs will be running campaigns alongside ours. We all need to work together to pressure government and your employers to do the right thing.

Through solidarity, we can achieve anything