Harbour View Haven Nursing Home Workers Vote to Strike

LUNENBURG, Nova Scotia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Long term care workers at Harbour View Haven, represented by CUPE 4919, voted 97% in favour of a strike mandate last week, joining the other CUPE long term care homes that have taken strike votes this month in order to fight for better wages and improved recruitment and retention.

“I think it’s safe to say that everyone is feeling the pinch. The cost of living has just kept rising and our wages simply haven’t kept up,” said CUPE 4919 President Laura Stewart. “I have coworkers who have multiple jobs, who have to choose between paying for electricity or buying groceries. How is that right? How can we spend every day taking care for our most vulnerable people and still not make enough to feed or house ourselves and our families?”

CUPE 4919 is 1 of over 50 CUPE nursing homes in the province taking part in coordinated bargaining, which aims to improve the wages and working conditions in Nova Scotian long term care homes.

“They’re understaffed, overworked, and underpaid. That’s the simple truth,” said CUPE Long Term Care Coordinator Tammy Martin, “but it feels like the government is okay with that. They’re okay with our long term care workers being the lowest paid in Atlantic Canada, with 5.8% of them leaving the sector in the last 10 months alone, with barely half the long term care homes province-wide managing the minimum recommended 4.1 hours of care per resident a day. Me? I’m not okay with that and neither are these workers. We need to do better and the responsibility for why we’re not falls directly at the government’s feet and their refusal to pay them fairly.”

Coordinated bargaining continues today and tomorrow.