Shelburne Long Term Care Workers Vote to Strike

SHELBURNE, NS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Late last week, Roseway Manor long term care workers, represented by CUPE 3099, voted 100% in favour of a strike mandate citing low wages, understaffing, and lack of respect for support service workers who keep the long term care home running.

“For years, the long term care sector has been struggling,” said CUPE 3099 President Holly Snow, “and Roseway is no different. We’re understaffed, constantly working short, and the low wages undermine any recruitment efforts.”

CUPE 3099 is the first of the fifty-two CUPE represented worksites to take a strike vote. Collectively, they are participating in Lead Table Bargaining, which allows all workers to fight together for priority items such as wages, workplace safety, and staffing.

“Across the province, long term care workers have been saying the same thing for years: they need help,” said CUPE Long Term Care Coordinator Tammy Martin. “The government has heard us, we talked to them directly, we went to the first sitting of the fall legislature, but they still refuse to take the problem seriously.”

In recent years, the Houston government has granted several contracts to private companies to build and run long term care facilities rather than investing in the existing public infrastructure in the province. These public-private contracts, known as P3s, promise to add hundreds of new beds to tackle the nearly 2,000-person wait list for long term care placements. However, this does nothing to address chronic understaffing caused by the worker shortage due to low wages and poor working conditions.

“More beds doesn’t mean less people on waitlists, it means more unused beds because we don’t have long term care workers to offer the care required. Already less than half of the current long term care homes can manage the recommended 4.1 hours of care per resident per day—how will adding more beds without changing the circumstances of the workers solve that issue?” asked Martin.

“We may only be one long term care home, but we’re not alone. We’re joined by our fellow long term care workers across the province who have reached their breaking points. Our issues are universal in the long term care sector and we can’t go on like this. We won’t,” finished Snow.

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