Grey Listing at HSC

Grey listing is one of the strongest tools MNU has to signal that a facility is no longer safe for staff.

When nurses grey list a facility, it means that MNU is advising current and prospective members not to seek employment at that facility due to ongoing unsafe or inappropriate working conditions. It is not a strike or job action. It’s a member-driven decision.

At HSC, the road to grey listing has been long and painful. Over the summer, a series of sexual assaults occurred on and around the HSC campus. The employer’s communication around those incidents was slow, vague, and left nurses feeling exposed instead of protected. These assaults came on top of a steady pattern of violence, threats, and unsafe conditions that nurses have been flagging for years.

Earlier this year, HSC nurses from MNU Worksite 10 voted overwhelmingly — 94% in favour — to grey list Manitoba’s largest healthcare facility. Their message was clear: the violence must be addressed, and the employer and provincial government must make nurse safety a priority.

MNU nurses put forward a detailed list of recommendations outlining exactly what must change before the grey list is removed, including:

• Controlled access and proper screening at every entrance
  Swipe-card access only through tunnels
• Full Institutional Safety Officer (ISO) coverage — or police presence until ISOs are in place
• Better communication tools and reliable duress alarms
• Regular, comprehensive security risk assessments
• A threat-alert system for all staff, patients, and visitors
• Proper post-incident debriefs that include Workplace Safety and Health representatives
• Security representation on the Workplace Safety and Health Committee
• Mandatory security training and a full policy review within 30 days

So far, HSC has implemented only one recommendation: 24/7 police presence in the emergency department. While this is a direct result of the pressure that grey listing put on the government, the Winnipeg Police Service is already stretched thin. We need ISOs — who have specialized de-escalation training and some policing ability — used more consistently across the province.

In the meantime, nurses are still waiting for real action.

Until every recommendation is implemented, the grey list will stay in place, and nurses will continue pushing for the safe working environment they deserve.

A Violence Crisis

Violence against nurses happens everywhere — in emergency rooms, personal care homes, community clinics, and patient care units in hospitals across every region of Manitoba.

Right now, there is no consistent, province-wide system for tracking violent or abusive incidents against nurses. The closest tool available is the RL6 Form. The problem? RL6 isn’t designed specifically for violence. It’s a general incident-reporting form. The only way to determine which RL6s involve violence is to review every form individually.

So that’s exactly what MNU did.

MNU manually reviewed RL6 Forms from four rural regions — Prairie Mountain Health, Southern Health-Santé Sud, Northern Health, and Interlake-Eastern Health — and identified each form that involved abuse against a nurse. That review uncovered 674 abusive incidents between January and November 1, 2025. And that’s only what was reported.

This process is inefficient and leaves everyone in the dark about the true scale of the problem. A province-wide, dedicated reporting system is needed so nurses know who receives their report, how the employer will handle the incident, and what steps will be taken to address the harm.

Most importantly, reporting should never result in a nurse being blamed for experiencing violence — yet nurses still hear questions like, “What could you have done differently?” Managers and employers must encourage reporting, support nurses who come forward, and treat every incident seriously.

Only then will we have a more accurate understanding of what nurses face every day in Manitoba’s healthcare system.

Violence in Northern Health

Violence at Thompson General Hospital (TGH) has escalated to an alarming level.

In 2024 alone, TGH required 557 law enforcement responses — an extraordinary number for a community of just 13,000 people.

These aren’t minor incidents. Last Christmas Eve, an individual armed with a rifle entered the hospital chapel, pointed the weapon at staff, and fired a shot through a window. More recently, a stabbing occurred in the ER waiting room. In that case, it was a nurse who had to step in, intervene, and try to manage the situation until the RCMP arrived.

Nurses have been raising alarms about the lack of security at TGH for years. MNU has repeatedly called for Institutional Safety Officers (ISOs) at the facility — trained, specialized security personnel dedicated to protecting healthcare environments. Following the stabbing, it’s clear that ISOs are essential, but not enough. Weapons scanners are also urgently needed to prevent dangerous items from entering the building in the first place.

Given the escalating violence and the lack of timely action from the employer, TGH nurses have now taken the same step as their colleagues at HSC. The grey list vote closed on November 21, 2025, and 97% voted in favour of grey listing the facility. Their message is unmistakable: the safety issues at TGH can no longer be ignored.

Nurses cannot provide safe care when they are constantly at risk. They shouldn’t have to work in fear.

Code Whites

A Code White is called when there is a violent or aggressive incident at a healthcare facility, or when a staff member feels unsafe and needs immediate help. It is one of the clearest signals that violence is actively happening inside a hospital.

In February 2025, the Winnipeg Free Press revealed that the province had quietly stopped tracking Code Whites. When the Free Press requested Code White data dating back to 2019, they were told the records simply “did not exist.” This unannounced change happened after earlier reporting showed a surge in Code Whites at multiple Winnipeg hospitals in 2019.

After learning this, MNU filed its own freedom-of-information request to obtain Code White data starting in March 2025 — the month after the province’s lack of transparency came to light.

The results were alarming: 664 Code Whites across Winnipeg hospitals in just five months (from March to July 2025).

The province’s decision to stop tracking these incidents only reinforces that they aren’t taking violence seriously, and that meaningful action only comes when they are called out and publicly shamed.

Nurses deserve better than a system that hides or minimizes the violence they face every day.

Standing With Nurses Who Take Action

When nurses decide their worksites are unsafe and choose to grey list a facility, MNU stands with them. We support locals through the entire process — from documenting safety concerns, to communicating with the public, to pressing employers and government for urgent improvements. Grey listing is never taken lightly, and when nurses raise the alarm, we make sure it’s heard.

Amplifying Nurse Voices

Nurses share their stories with us every day: the violence they’ve survived, the fear they carry into their shifts, and the impact these conditions have on their health, their workplaces, and the care they’re able to provide. MNU amplifies these experiences through our social media channels and our bi-weekly podcast, Shift Happens. We blow the whistle when the system won’t to ensure nurses’ concerns can’t be ignored or buried.

Holding Employers and Government Accountable

MNU meets regularly with key decision-makers — including government, employers, police, and other stakeholders — to demand concrete action to improve our healthcare system. We follow up, track commitments, and press for timelines, because conversations alone don’t keep nurses safe.

Protecting Nurses Through Grievances and Specialized Support

When employers fail to protect nurses or violate the collective agreement, MNU files grievances to ensure members receive fair and just treatment. We also have specialized Labour Relations Officers who focus exclusively on Workplace Safety and Health issues and WCB claims. Their expertise ensures nurses get the support they need when they’ve been harmed at work — without being blamed, dismissed, or left to navigate the system alone.

Using Evidence to Push for Real Change

MNU gathers data through member research, incident reporting, and Freedom of Information requests. We use this evidence to produce public reports, expose system failures, and propose solutions that improve nurse conditions in every region of the province. When government or employers won’t be transparent, we do the work ourselves.

Driving Public Awareness Across Manitoba

Unsafe working conditions, eroding workplace culture, and declining patient care are system-wide issues that affect every Manitoban. That’s why MNU runs province-wide public awareness campaigns using billboards, websites, videos, lawn signs, social media, and more to ensure Manitobans understand what nurses are facing and why it matters. We also work with local and national media to make sure these stories reach far beyond hospital walls to the people responsible for fixing the system.

Nurses can’t fix this system alone — and they shouldn’t have to.

Real change happens when Manitobans see what’s going on and decide they won’t accept it. If you want safer hospitals, better care, and a system that doesn’t break the people working in it, here’s how you can help:

1. Stay Informed

The more you know about what nurses are facing, the harder it becomes for leaders to ignore it. Follow MNU to hear frontline stories, understand what’s happening inside our hospitals, and see what we’re pushing for day in, day out. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X, and Threads.

2. Share What Matters

When a post resonates with you, share it. Put it in front of people who haven’t seen what nurses are up against. Awareness grows one share at a time, and silence only protects the status quo. Nurses are speaking up, and you can back them by helping their voices carry further.

3. Tell Your Story

Nurses, patients, families — everyone has a story about the healthcare system, and those stories are powerful. They show what statistics can’t. They expose the gap between what should happen and what actually happens. Share yours by sending a DM on social media, emailing us, or by submitting your story right here on this site.

4. Listen and Subscribe to Shift Happens

If you want the unfiltered version of what’s happening in healthcare, start here. Every other week, Darlene Jackson and Brandi Johnson take on the issues nurses live through — the ones that never make it into political announcements or press releases. Listen, subscribe, and share episodes that hit home on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or at shifthappenspod.ca.

5. Thank a Nurse

If a nurse helped you or someone you love, please tell us. In a system this strained, those moments matter. Share your message, and it may be featured in our “That Good Shift” podcast segment — a reminder that good care still happens, even when the odds are stacked against nurses. You can submit a thank-you message here.

6. Push the Government to Act

Nothing changes without pressure. Use this letter template to send an email to the Minister of Health and MLA Carla Compton and tell them you expect better — for nurses, for patients, for all Manitobans. They work for you. Make sure they hear you.

Minister of Health
Hon. Uzoma Asagwara
Email: minhsltc@manitoba.ca

Premier’s Advisor on Nursing Culture & Safety
MLA Carla Compton
Email: carla.compton@yourmanitoba.ca

7. Share Your Ideas

Frontline workers and the public often see solutions long before leadership does. If you have ideas to improve safety, staffing, or patient care, send us an email. Honest solutions come from people who understand the system, or from those who’ve been shaped by it.