99.7 per cent Approve Strike Mandate Amid Stalled Negotiations, Demand Better Deal
Winnipeg, MB, August 13, 2026 – Laboratory professionals at Dynacare have voted overwhelmingly to approve a strike mandate, with 99.7 per cent voting in favour. The Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals (MAHCP) conducted the strike vote earlier this week. The union represents nearly 350 laboratory technicians and technologists at Dynacare’s 22 laboratory and health services centres in Winnipeg, Brandon and surrounding communities, as well as Dynacare’s laboratory for sample analysis on King Edward St. in Winnipeg. MAHCP members at Dynacare completed more than 15 million laboratory tests in the 2024/25 fiscal year, according to Manitoba government records.
“Manitobans and their healthcare providers count on the rapid testing and results our Dynacare members deliver, but workloads have increased while pay has stagnated,” said MAHCP President Jason Linklater. “Dynacare wages used to be competitive with other labs, but since they secured a monopoly on non-hospital testing, Dynacare has shown they care more about corporate profits than they do about their employees.”
Since 2017, Dynacare’s wages have fallen significantly behind market rates. Current Dynacare wages for laboratory professionals are 20 to 50 per cent behind Shared Health compensation for the same specialized work (wage gap varies by classification and years of service).
Dynacare became Manitoba’s only private outpatient provider for laboratory services in 2017, after purchasing competitor Unicity Labs. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Labcorp, an American corporation based in North Carolina with profits (net earnings) that have more than doubled in the last two years: $418 million in 2023 to $876.5 million in 2025, a 110% increase.
The collective agreement between MAHCP and Dynacare ended March 31, 2026. Negotiations between the parties began in February 2026, and they have been in mediation since July 15, 2026. The parties have been unable to reach a tentative agreement through mediation, and there are no further bargaining or mediation dates scheduled.
“Our members perform millions of tests each year for Manitobans,” said Linklater. “They want to keep doing that work, but they need a competitive and equitable contract that recognizes their value to Manitoba’s healthcare system, and to Dynacare.”
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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. We are the only labour union in Manitoba solely dedicated to professional/technical and paramedical occupational groups. 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 – Special Advisor, Policy and Public Affairs
tim@mahcp.ca | M: 431-337-7787