On Friday April 4, the Nova Scotia legislature passed essential services legislation (Bill 37) that put Capital Health nurses, members of NSGEU Local 97, back to work after a brief legal strike and after a one-day wildcat strike that resulted in a labour board order to cease and desist. The Liberal's bill affects some 35,000 unionized public employees in health care and effectively disarms them in collective bargaining by requiring pre-bargaining staffing that renders any legal job action ineffective. As Ray Larkin, legal counsel for the NSGEU (and IBEW Local 1928) says in his remarks before the legislative Law Amendments committee, "If an employer does not need to make concessions during bargaining, they will not make concessions." This bill—even if it does not directly affect your collective agreement—signals a legislated shift in the employer/employee balance during future collective bargaining in Nova Scotia. Watch Mr. Larkin's full remarks to the committee here.