The government adopted Bill 68 on June 27 ordering an end to strikes by hospital workers. The law allowed the government to impose contracts and levy $2,000 fines against union members who didn't go along. The same day, 2,900 health-care workers went on strike and 2,100 nurses respected their picket lines.

The following day the workers returned to work but threatened to resign en masse. More than 1,450 of the 2,100 nurses at the province's largest hospital signed letters of resignation. This came on top of a sustained mobilization, which included demonstrations and walkouts. The workers are represented by the Nova Scotia Government Employees Union and the Nova Scotia Nurses Union.

In face of these labor protests the Globe and Mail, one of Canada's two national newspapers, published an editorial saying that Bill 68 "was a stupid, provocative move." The editorial said, "The right to withdraw services is not only a valued part of collective bargaining, but a crucial safety valve in a province that pays nurses less than any other province."

On July 5, the Nova Scotia newspaper Halifax Chronicle-Herald said in an editorial that the government should resign if it could not come up with a compromise with the unions. "We can't replace the nurses. But a new government can always be cobbled together," the editorial read.

The mood of the hospital workers was captured by cardiac nurse Fay MacNeil, who said, "I didn't sign on to nursing to do slave labor. I didn't sign on to lose my rights."

Laboratory technologist Tammy Freeman said in a confrontation with Hamm in the foyer of the provincial legislature, "It's not just people working in the hospital. You have people all across the province angry."

The nurses have been demanding a 20 percent increase over three years, while the government was offering 10.5 percent. Other hospital workers have demanded 9 percent with cost-of-living adjustments, while the government has offered 6 per cent. The nurses and health-care workers also are demanding a reduction in the brutal workloads and the hiring of new workers. The outcome of the arbitration should be known by mid-August.

This year has seen many clashes in Canada between health-care workers, on one hand, and the employers and their government, on the other. Paramedics have walked off the job in Edmonton, hospital and nursing home workers in Saskatchewan spent nearly a week on picket lines, New Brunswick hospital support staff were legislated back to work, and British Columbia nurses are continuing their fight for a contract despite a law that makes illegal their ban on overtime.  
 
 
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