Additional workers join Nova Scotia long-term care strike, with more on the way

Workers at another Nova Scotia long-term care home have joined a strike, bringing the number of homes facing labour action to 25.

Essential services are being maintained, but most physiotherapists, occupational therapists and recreational therapists are not reporting to work, says Kim Cail, long-term care co-ordinator with the Canadian Union of Public Employees. Other striking workers include nurses, continuing-care assistants and housekeeping staff.

A minimum number of workers are on the job at all times, so residents are still being fed and services like laundry are being done, but it’s all taking longer than usual, Cail said in an interview Thursday.

Meanwhile, CUPE says its members at four more care homes are expected next week to join the strike, which began Monday. That will increase the number of striking workers from the current 2,400 to more than 3,000. The union said no new talks with the government are scheduled.

“We’re impatiently waiting to get back to the (bargaining) table,” Cail said.

2:23 Nova Scotia long-term care workers on strike, demanding higher wages

The union said the 25th care home to join the strike is Valley View Villa in Pictou County, N.S., about 125 kilometres northeast of Halifax. Additional workers will join the labour action, the union said, as their locals fulfil legal requirements, including holding meetings with employers and sending the proper notice to the government.

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Gary MacLeod, founder of Advocates for the Care of the Elderly, which pushes for quality living conditions in long-term care, said he knows from experience with his late mother that homes are short-staffed at the best of times and employees are constantly overworked. He said he used to visit the home every day to make sure his mother was receiving proper care.

“So unless they’re walking the picket line and then dashing back into the nursing homes to do the essential things that they have to do with bathing and incontinent changes and all that kind of stuff, I don’t know how it’s working,” he said in an interview Thursday.

MacLeod said he supports higher wages for long-term care workers, saying they have tremendous responsibility but their pay doesn’t reflect it.

Barbara Adams, Nova Scotia’s Long-Term Care Minister, has said the government is offering pay increases of at least 12 per cent over four years, while some workers would see pay bumps of 24 per cent. There’s also a 70 per cent increase in shift and weekend premiums.

The offer includes retroactive pay to 2023 when the last collective agreement expired.

Adams has said that 27 unionized long-term care homes, represented by unions other than CUPE, have already accepted the same offer. In addition, she said home care and hospital employees represented by CUPE have also signed on to the same terms. The government did not immediately provide additional comment on Thursday.