Premier Darrell Dexter is supporting a united front by the province's nine district health authorities and the IWK Health Centre. (CBC)

Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter is supporting a united front by the province's nine district health authorities and the IWK Health Centre, who say they can't afford to pay the raises demanded by thousands of health-care workers.

"I see that they decided to act in a unified way which means that they have really turned their minds to this challenge which is overall, a good thing," Dexter told reporters on Thursday.

Negotiations appear to be off to a rocky start with the Nova Scotia Government & General Employees Union and others who represent licensed practical nurses, lab technicians and hospital staff across the province.

Unionized health-care workers usually bargain separately with each of the province's health authorities, but on Wednesday the employers announced they were forging a united front and rejecting a wage increase of 5.1 per cent over two years.

Those demands are based on what 2,500 registered nurses in the Capital District Health Authority won through an arbitration last year.

Dexter said meeting the health-care unions' demands could cost the province approximately $42 million each year.

"If that was just to move across the health-care locals in this province, that would be 1½ times the entire increase in the health-care budget that we receive from the federal government," he told reporters.

"We receive about $30 million in terms of an increase in health funding from Ottawa."

The premier said the province did not tell the health authorities to band together.

"No, we didn't. In fact, we didn't know they were going to do that until they issued their press release," said Dexter.

"I think it is another sign in terms of something that people have been widely calling for, which is a kind of consolidated approach to many of these issues."

Licensed practical nurses meet with union

Meanwhile, members of the Nova Scotia Government & General Employees Union said they were getting ready for difficult contract talks with the province.

About 75 licensed practical nurses gathered at the Halifax Infirmary on Wednesday night to hear their union's negotiation strategy for next week's contract talks.

Annette Nicoletti, a licensed practical nurse in Dartmouth, said members are not happy the government intends to reject a 5.1 per cent wage increase demand.

"Ultimately a registered nurse definitely has more training and can be in charge, but as for the day-to-day care and decisions, we as licensed practical nurses definitely are accountable for the actions that we do," she told CBC News.

"We're front line, we're out there working very closely with a registered nurse and part of a team."

Joan Jessome, the president of the Nova Scotia Government & General Employees Union, said she wanted to meet with the licensed practical nurses specifically to make it clear the union is ready to fight for them as hard as they fought for registered nurses last year.

Jessome will be bargaining on behalf of about 500 licensed practical nurses in Local 42, which represents a fraction of the 3,800 health-care workers represented in the bargaining unit.

"When you have one profession that achieves a 5.1 per cent increase and you have other professions that are working hard and are trying to deliver that service that's required, it's human nature to expect to be treated fairly," said Jessome.