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Support our work, Pay our worth! Stittsville Long-Term Care Workers call out Sienna for failure to fix staffing levels at Granite Ridge Care Community

Stittsville, ON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, workers at Granite Ridge Care Community are holding a rally to call out ongoing staff shortages at the facility. The 300 workers, represented by CUPE Local 4540 provide care for residents of the facility. Granite Ridge is operated by Sienna Senior Living and is a for-profit home that has routinely underpaid and undervalued frontline workers to generate higher returns for shareholders. Rather than negotiating with the union and addressing long-standing issues with pay, working conditions, and understaffing, Sienna has hired high-priced lawyers to fight the workers’ reasonable proposals to address these issues.

“The employer would rather incur high legal fees retaining lawyers to fight us at the labour board than to just work with us to find a fair compromise,” said Douglas Currier, President of CUPE 4540. “It shows a significant lack of commitment to the workers here, and the residents who rely on them.”

This combative behaviour is a pattern with this employer. Sienna Senior Living was in the news earlier this year for attempting to cut hours at a long-term care facility in Bobcaygeon. Long-term care workers in Ontario are denied the right to strike, allowing employers to exploit the system to get around workers’ needs.

Sienna’s most recent report to their investors boasts a 13% growth in second quarter earnings compared to their 2025 numbers. Rather than investing a fraction of their boasted $288 Million revenue into strengthen staffing levels and reduce employee turnover by improving wages, Sienna has instead opted to spend capital to fight their employees.

“We see these sorts of tactics from for-profit employers all the time,” said Currier. “The majority of our members barely make a living wage. Many of them work multiple jobs just to get by, and some are even forced to use the food bank to make sure their families are fed. That’s just unacceptable treatment from a billion-dollar company.”

The union and employer are scheduled for an Interest Arbitration hearing on September 2. For workers at Granite Ridge Care Community, the stakes are high.

:js/cope491

Contacts

For more information, please contact:
William Chalupiak
CUPE Communications Representative
416-707-1401, wchalupiak@cupe.ca

Industry:

Canadian Union of Public Employees

Release Versions
English

Contacts

For more information, please contact:
William Chalupiak
CUPE Communications Representative
416-707-1401, wchalupiak@cupe.ca

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