Workers at group homes run by LutherCare Communities in Saskatoon are escalating their strike action.

Service Employees International Union West (SEIU-West) says starting May 1, they will withdraw some services including managing dirty duties and cutlery.

This is in addition to their existing withdrawal of transportation services for residents.

The two sides have been at odds over several issues during contract negotiations including wages and days off during the week.

SEIU-West says the employer suggested adding the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a holiday in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). However, they failed to mention their plan to offset the cost by reducing employees' wages by 1 per cent.

The union criticized this move, noting that management staff received the holiday without a similar wage deduction.

Earlier this week the union said shifts have become shorter, to the point that even full-time staff find themselves continuously working seven days a week to make up enough hours.

LutherCare Communities said it offered a fair package that includes a wage increase, increased medical care leave, and a signing bonus.

It said it could not offer every weekend off due to their commitment to provide 24-7 care, but it does schedule shifts to ensure team members get two days off each week.

"We have reached out on several occasions to the union asking for clarification on their position regarding our last offer and there has been no response to date," Chief People Officer Chad Okrainetz said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.

"We believe we have offered a fair package that includes a wage increase retroactive to April 1st, 2023, increased medical care leave, a signing bonus, and the inclusion of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a statutory holiday," Okrainetz said.

However, SEIU-West says it has always responded to the invitation to bargain.

“Any time the employer has contacted us, they have nothing new to offer,” Barbara Cape, President of SEIU-West said in the release. “We remain committed to achieving a fair Collective Agreement for our members.”

“Our members take no pleasure in the withdrawal of services, but it has taken far too long to get a fair deal to settle a long overdue Collective Agreement,” Cape added. “But until the Employer is ready to come to the table with a better proposal to conclude bargaining, the Union job action will continue.”

Saskatoon, SK – Through two games, the Eastern Conference Championship is setting up to be a battle.

For the second straight night, the two sides needed overtime to decide the game with the Moose Jaw Warriors falling 3-2 to the Saskatoon Blades in Game 2 on Saturday night at SaskTel Centre.

The best-of-seven series is now tied at 1-1 as it shifts to Moose Jaw for Games 3 and 4.

“There’s a swings and you’ve just got to ride those waves,” Warriors captain Denton Mateychuk said. “There’s going to be unlucky breaks like in the second, a couple of goals that they scored to get back in the game, so you’ve just got to be ready for that and adapt and overcome.”

In a flip from Game 1, the Warriors jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period of Game 2, but the Blades fought back.

The two teams went into the third period tied at 2-2 for the second straight game, but neither could find the go-ahead marker.

Fraser Minten won the game for Saskatoon with 6:54 to go in the first overtime.

“We had a really glorious opportunity, an empty net, to make it 3-0, I think if we score there, we’re sitting here talking about a different game,” Warriors associate coach Scott King said.

“It’s playoffs, it’s a game of inches and sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t.”

After taking Game 1 in Saskatoon, the Warriors came out of the gates hungry for more in Game 2.

Atley Calvert gave the Warriors the lead with 7:27 to go in the first period as he finished off the rush for his fifth of the playoffs.

The Warriors extended their lead to 2-0 when Kalem Parker rifled home his second of the playoffs from the point with 2:40 left in the first.

After some missed opportunities late in the first, the Blades got a break midway through the second with a 4-on-3 power play and they capitalized on a goal from Tanner Molendyk.

Saskatoon would tie the game with 2:31 to go in the second as Brandon Lisowsky buried a rebound in front.

The two sides battled back-and-forth in the third with both sides getting eight shots on net.

The back-and-forth play extended into overtime where Saskatoon forced a turnover at their own blue line and raced back the other way. Minten would finish to give them a series-tying win.

“It’s very important to just flip the page,” Mateychuk said. “You can’t just sit back and be down on yourself after this one, we’ve got to turn the page and get back to work tomorrow and be ready for Tuesday.”

Jackson Unger stopped 34 of 37 shots in the loss, while the Warriors were outshot 37-27 on the night.

Moose Jaw went 0-for-2 on the power play, while Saskatoon finished 1-for-4 in the win.

The Warriors will now get to play in front of their home fans for the next two games, starting with Game 3 on Tuesday night at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.

There are limited tickets available for both games, click here to purchase.

Missed opportunities in first half of game the difference as Moose Jaw drops 3-2 decision

Listen to this article 00:02:58

MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- The Moose Jaw Warriors have had more than their fair share of games they could have and should have won this season, and much like those outings, they were eft wondering what could have been after falling to the Saskatoon Blades in overtime on Saturday night.

The Blades scored three straight goals, including the winner in overtime off the stick of Fraser Minten, as they went on to a 3-2 victory over the Warriors in Game 2 of the Western Hockey League Eastern Conference final at SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon.

The Warriors took a 2-0 lead out of the first period, but easily could have led by four or more just by finishing near-perfect scoring chances. Alas for the local squad, the finish just wasn’t there, and as a result they narrowly missed on taking a 2-0 series lead coming home.

“We left a lot on the table in each of the four periods,” said Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary. “We had our fair share of looks, our fair share of crossbars and when you miss on those opportunities, you kind of have that feeling it’s going to come back and haunt you.

It’s an unfortunate way to lose the game, but there are a lot of positive things coming out of these two games here.”

Warrior fans who followed the team from the start of the season will know exactly how Saturday’s game looked -- not much different from their close-call losses in November and December when they’d fall short despite a similar number of chances.

That’s a reason there isn’t a lot of concern coming home, seeing as how having just one of those opportunities go in would have seen a different result.

“At the end of the day, those things will even themselves out, over the course of a series there will be some nights where they miss on some pretty good looks too,” O’Leary said. “It’s just another thing you have to handle, the easy thing to do is to get frustrated and start blaming different things. All that matters is the series is 1-1 and now it’s a best out of five.”

Seeing Saskatoon stage their second period comeback in no small part due to a handful of controversial calls didn’t make things any easier, but dealing with those situations is all part of the playoffs.

“That was an emotional rollercoaster for sure, with some tough penalties and penalty kills,” O’Leary said. “Just a lot going on there and they climbed back into the game. But at no point when you’re up 2-0 in the first period do you feel comfortable, especially when there’s a lot of hockey left. They can score goals, and in both games we played well defensively, we didn’t give up a whole lot, and they cashed in (on their chances).”

Now, it’s a matter of doing the same at home and ideally putting what promises to be a pair of sellout crowds to good use.

“We’re looking forward to playing in front of our fans in The Hanger, I know it’ll be loud and it’ll be exciting, but we need to get some rest first,” O’Leary said. “Four periods in two days is a lot for the guys, so we’ll get a couple days rest here and be back at it on Tuesday.”

Rested Saskatoon Blades squad ready to face Moose Jaw in all-Saskatchewan Eastern Final

WATCH: Needing just nine games to get through the first two rounds of WHL playoffs, the Saskatoon Blades will match up against the Moose Jaw Warriors in the first all-Saskatchewan Eastern Conference Final since 1993.

More Videos

0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%

Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard ShortcutsEnabledDisabled

Play/PauseSPACE

Increase Volume↑

Decrease Volume↓

Seek Forward→

Seek Backward←

Captions On/Offc

Fullscreen/Exit Fullscreenf

Mute/Unmutem

Seek %0-9

Next Up

Calgary U18 AAA Buffaloes return home with bronze medal from Telus Cup

facebook

twitter

Email

Linkhttps://globalnews.ca/video/10445494/rested-saskatoon-blades-squad-ready-to-face-moose-jaw-in-all-saskatchewan-eastern-final/

Copied

Embed<iframe src="https://globalnews.ca/video/embed/10445494/" width="670" height="372" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen scrolling="no"></iframe>

Copied

Live

00:00

00:00

00:00

Generations of WHL players have passed through the league since the last time two Saskatchewan-based clubs faced each other in the Eastern Conference final series.

However in 2024, that streak will end as the Saskatoon Blades and Moose Jaw Warriors will do battle in the third round for the right to represent the conference in the WHL championship series.

“It’s two real good Saskatchewan teams playing against each other,” said Blades head coach Brennan Sonne. “It’s great for the province, it’s great for the cities. I eagerly await the series and it should be a lot of fun.”

The Blades have advanced to the Eastern Conference final for the second year in a row where they will face-off against Moose Jaw in a battle of the top two regular season clubs in the conference.

Unlike last year when the Blades fell in four straight games to the Winnipeg ICE, this year’s Saskatoon squad needed only nine games to reach the third round of playoffs compared to a pair of gruelling seven-game series in 2023.

“I think last year we just used up our emotions,” said Sonne. “It was so tense, and comebacks, and seven-game series, and sellouts, and Connor Bedard, and, ‘Oh my God [winning] down from 3-0.’ Just all of our emotional bandwidth was used up and I just thought we were done physically and emotionally.

“This year with having the rest, the breaks, the time off and the practice time, there’s reserves in the tank emotionally and physically.”

1:23

After defeating the Prince Albert Raiders in five games to open playoffs, the Blades were able to sweep the Red Deer Rebels in four games and earned a week of rest ahead of their third round series versus Moose Jaw.

The email you need for the day's top news stories from Canada and around the world.

Blades captain Trevor Wong said that will put them in a better place to compete, compared to the exhaustion they felt this time last year.

“We were pretty worn out by the third round against a really good team last year in Winnipeg,” said Wong. “This year we accomplished our goals getting the series done as quickly as we could. We got as much rest as we could and we’re ready to go.”

Saskatoon clinched the series with a pair of dominant victories over the Rebels in Games 3 and 4, led by an otherworldly performance by Belarussian sniper Egor Sidorov.

More on Sports

Named WHL Player of the Week on Monday, Sidorov exploded for back-to-back hat-tricks and a five-point performance in Game 4 to help the Blades advance to the conference final.

“It’s all about the guys who I’m playing with,” said Sidorov. “Trevor Wong, [Brandon] Lisowsky, [Alexander] Suzdalev, [Easton] Armstrong, they’re smart guys who make smart plays. I just need to be somewhere on the ice to score.”

According to Sonne, Sidorov’s usage was dialed back as Game 4 progressed which made what he accomplished even more impressive.

“He was just doing things that was very difficult to stop,” said Sonne. “All of the five points was in about 12 minutes of ice time. We need guys like that, players like that to be Conn Smythes. If you get 20 Conn Smythes in a playoff series or a playoff run, you’re doing well.”

Saskatoon will be facing their toughest test yet in the Warriors, who like the Blades have only suffered one loss in the playoffs so far after sweeping the Brandon Wheat Kings in the opening round before dispatching the Swift Current Broncos in five games.

Led by captain and WHL playoff leading scorer Denton Mateychuk, the Warriors added throughout the season to their core and now boast a roster that includes top-rated NHL prospects such as Jagger Firkus, Brayden Yager, Mateychuk and Matthew Savoie.

One of the WHL’s elite teams off the rush, they will test Saskatoon’s depth who are already without winger Tyler Parr due to injury and overage forward Easton Armstrong who will miss the first two games of the Saskatoon-Moose Jaw series while finishing serving a four-game suspension for charging Red Deer goaltender Chase Wutzke.

However, centre Fraser Minten said he’ll put up Saskatoon’s forward core against any team in the league.

“I think that’s where we have an advantage in the series, is our full team,” said Minten. “I think we play better than them as a full group, that’s what we’re going to have to rely upon and need contributions from everyone.”

The Blades and Warriors split their season series this year with each side winning three of six games in regulation.

If that trend holds, this series will be the longest and most intensive that either Saskatoon or Moose Jaw has faced yet this post-season.

“We just got to play hard and smart,” said Sidorov. “Backcheck, forecheck, paycheque.”

Playing a major role in Saskatoon’s memorable playoff run last year, Wong added the atmosphere of the third round takes a significant leap and is determined to get the Blades back to the WHL Final for the first time since 1994.

“Everything is amplified,” said Wong. “There’s only two teams left in your conference and two on the other side. Win this one and you get a ticket to the dance.”

The Blades will host the Warriors for games 1 and 2 of the series on Friday and Saturday with 7:00 pm puck drops for both, before the series heads down the highway to Moose Jaw for games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.