The CSN believes 20 percent of provincial medical lab workers will lose their jobs as the result of a plan to centralize medical testing.
In 2011 then-Health Minister Yves Bolduc began the Optilab project to optimize hospital biomedical testing, a decision made in part to reduce wait times for testing.
Last year Health Minister Gaetan Barrette said the plan was making good progress and would eventually save taxpayers tens of millions of dollars each year.
Five years after the centralization project began health boards met with union representatives to explain the ins and outs of how progress was being made.
Health officials said they expect the overall number of workhours needed would drop by 20 percent as laboratories that did little testing were closed, and samples were sent to larger centres instead.
Samples from Abitibi would go to Montreal, those from the Gaspé would head to Rimouski, and those from James Bay would go to Chicoutimi.
The provincial government indicated the reduction in staff would be done through attrition, but the CSN believes it would happen through layoffs instead.
The CSN said it has been led to believe that 44 technician jobs in the Saguenay would be cut, while eight people would be hired at a larger lab in Chicoutimi.
The Health Ministry expects the Optilab system to be fully in place by 2020.
With a file from The Canadian Press
