WINNIPEG — Hundreds of Manitoba medical lab employees are back at work as the premier is criticizing the company involved in the labour dispute. The union representing the 350 workers across 22 Dynacare diagnostic labs in Manitoba says employees are back in the labs a day after they went on strike. The workers were forced off the picket line late Tuesday after the Manitoba Labour Board ordered them back as essential workers at the request of the provincial government. Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, has criticized the province for interfering with contract negotiations and says they have lost trust in Premier Wab Kinew's NDP government. Kinew told the CBC this morning that Dynacare workers should be paid more and blamed the former Progressive Conservative government for privatizing the service. The premier says it's important to maintain essential health-care services but that his NDP government is considering making the whole system public again. Dynacare, a private operator, is the province's primary collector of routine lab work, including blood samples, urinalysis and prenatal testing. The union has said its workers earn as much as 20 to 50 per cent less than their counterparts in the public system. Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press
