ManitobaNurses in Thompson have voted to “grey list” the northern Manitoba city’s hospital in light of staff vacancies, violence and what they call inaction from management on improving working conditions, their union says.Result reflects nurses’ ‘collective frustration’ with unsafe work environments, Manitoba Nurses Union saysCBC News · Posted: Nov 21, 2025 7:58 PM EST | Last Updated: 4 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 2 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Nurses have voted to ‘grey list’ Thompson General Hospital, but the president of the Manitoba Nurses Union previously said they will give the hospital a chance to deal with a number of issues before officially declaring it a dangerous place to work. (CBC)Nurses in Thompson have voted to “grey list” the northern Manitoba city’s hospital in light of staff vacancies, violence and what they call inaction from management on improving working conditions, their union says.Among the nurses at the hospital who cast electronic ballots from Wednesday to Friday, 97 per cent voted to grey list the facility, according to a news release from the Manitoba Nurses Union.The designation generally means union members discourage people from taking jobs at a certain facility.The union has long decried incidents of violence at the hospital in the northern hub city. On Christmas Eve last year, a man pointed a firearm at a staff member in the hospital’s chapel and fired a shot through a window.The stabbing of a patient at the hospital in late September was the tipping point that pushed nurses to call for a vote on grey listing, Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said earlier this week.The vote results reflect the “collective frustration” of nurses who are facing unsafe work environments, Jackson said in Friday’s news release.It also sends a message that meaningful action is needed to protect staff safety in the north, she said.The hospital now has “a clear opportunity” to implement reasonable conditions set by the nurses, said Jackson.CBC News has reached out to the Northern Regional Health Authority and the province for comment.Jackson previously told CBC News that if the vote passed, a list of recommendations would go to the employer to give the hospital a chance to deal with a number of issues before the hospital is declared a dangerous place for nurses to work.Nurses at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre — Manitoba’s largest — voted to grey list that facility last August. That vote also came in light of safety concerns at the facility.On Thursday, after police reported that a nurse at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg was sexually assaulted in its parkade earlier this month, Jackson said union members may grey list every hospital in the province if employers don’t “step up on safety.”
Vote to ‘grey list’ Thompson hospital passes with 97% support: nurses’ union
