Oakwood Terrace Workers Vote to Strike

DARTMOUTH, NS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Long term care workers from Oakwood Terrace, represented by Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 2774, voted 97% in favour of a strike mandate last week, joining 20 other CUPE long term care homes who’ve taken the same action in the last month.

“Enough is enough,” said CUPE 2774 President Merissa Dawson. “We, as long term care workers, are tired. Tired of not having enough funding for accurate or reasonable staff-to-resident ratios that allow us to provide proper care to each resident, of stretching paycheques that constantly feel like they’re shrinking, of the government ignoring our cries for help. We hope this sends a message, like all the other overwhelmingly positive strike votes have, that we’re ready to stand up and fight for what we deserve.”

CUPE long term care workers have been working under an expired collective agreement for two years, which has resulted in their wages stagnating as the rest of Atlantic Canada continued to increase. They are fighting for wage increases, among other contract changes, to ease the burden of the ever-rising cost of living and improve recruitment to ease understaffing issues.

“The cost of living keeps going up—food, rent, electricity—nothing is going down. Other provinces have realized they need to increase the wages of their long term care workers so they can keep up, it’s time Nova Scotia does the same,” said CUPE Long Term Care Coordinator Tammy Martin.

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