PREVIOUS DYNACARE CONTRACT DISCLOSED, INCLUDES $11.7 MILLION PROVINCIAL FUNDING INCREASE
Union Calls on Manitoba Government to Release Current Contract
September 4, 2026—Winnipeg—The Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals (MAHCP), the union representing more than 350 Dynacare laboratory technicians and technologists poised to strike this coming Tuesday, has released a previously undisclosed contract between the Manitoba government and Dynacare, obtained through freedom of information. The contract, including payment data, shows that Dynacare received a nearly $5 million dollar top-up and annual increases from government after Dynacare concluded the last round of contract negotiations with MAHCP in 2022.
The additional government funding received by Dynacare between 2018-2025, approximately $12 million, was more than five to six times what Dynacare workers received in wage increases over that period, according to the union.
“Dynacare has a history of squeezing their workers by claiming poverty, then secretly going to government for millions of dollars more,” said MAHCP president Jason Linklater. “The Manitoba government has been 100 per cent complicit in the exploitation of these hard-working laboratory professionals by a private, American-owned company.”
In 2017, Dynacare’s wages were at parity with Shared Health laboratory wages. Over the last eight years (2018-2025), base salary increases for unionized Dynacare employees have totaled only 9.9 per cent, an average 1.2 per cent increase each year, while Shared Health laboratory wages have increased approximately 40 per cent.
In 2025, Health, Seniors and Long-Term Care Minister Uzoma Asagwara signed a new, five-year contract with Dynacare, but the complete details of that contract have not been disclosed. MAHCP is calling on government to release the contract in full, and any other agreements with Dynacare, as it would with other publicly funded services.
“The Manitoba government is scrambling at the last minute to avoid a crisis they themselves set up by signing a five-year contract with a private, American-owned company based on exploiting Manitoba healthcare professionals,” said Linklater. “The government is putting added stress and pressure on underpaid healthcare workers, when it should be putting pressure on Dynacare to pay Manitobans a fair wage.”
Negotiations ended earlier this week when Dynacare rejected the union’s counterproposal and ended conciliation. According to the union, Dynacare’s final offer would leave their employees 20 to 30 per cent behind their Shared Health counterparts doing the same work in public hospitals and clinics.
Source: MAHCP Freedom of Information response supplied by Manitoba government.
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About MAHCP
MAHCP is a member-driven, democratic union of more than 7,600 allied health professionals, including more than 350 medical laboratory sciences professionals working at Dynacare. Our members deliver high-quality patient, client, and resident care in 50+ distinct professions across hundreds of classifications, and working in diagnostics, assessment, rehabilitation, treatment, and therapy, in labs, hospitals, clinics, long-term care, and community settings. www.mahcp.ca
For media inquiries, please contact:
Tim Smith – Senior Advisor, Policy and Public Affairs
431-337-7787
tim@mahcp.ca