No new deal has been reached after renewed negotiations between the union representing striking long-term care workers and the Nova Scotia government.
The two sides returned to the bargaining table Thursday evening — four weeks after a strike involving some 3,000 workers began.
Workers at 32 care homes are taking part in the strike and CUPE says two more homes are set to join the picket lines next week.
For the family members of residents, it’s disappointing and concerning news.
“It makes me sad. It’s very disheartening because we’ve all been working so hard looking after our families, stepping in when we need to, and it’s been long. We’re tired; it’s time,” Tabatha Khoury said.
Khoury, whose 75-year-old father is a resident at Glasgow Hall in Dartmouth, says she supports the striking workers entirely. However, she takes issue with the quality of care taking place in the facilities.
She recently shared a photo of her father’s lunch on social media: a hamburger patty with a slice of processed cheese and relish on top, alongside a handful of cheese puff snacks.
She noted that those who “complained were given a slice of bread with their burgers.”
The striking workers are represented by CUPE and include continuing care assistants, licensed practical nurses and support service providers, such as dietary and laundry staff.
Khoury said families have been assured that essential services are continuing at the long-term care homes, but she questions the quality of that care.
“I just see this compounding into a further crisis if a better agreement doesn’t come to the table soon.”
No further bargaining dates set
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Minister of Seniors and Long-term Care Barbara Adams said Friday that the government was optimistic heading into the talks and “bargained in good faith through the evening.”
“There was no deal that was able to be reached,” she said, saying that the union’s new ask was “nearly double what government has offered.
“We then asked CUPE, as we have been maintaining all along, that the CUPE members have the right to have their say and to take the offer to the vote — which is a 12 to 24 per cent pay raise retroactive over four years. And CUPE refused to take it back to their members, but we’re going to continue to ask them to do that.”
Adam said the government’s offer also includes a 70 per cent increase in shift premium, a defined pension benefit, and retroactive pay back to 2023.
CUPE said the government’s proposal Thursday would raise some support workers’ wages to $23 an hour by the end of the contract in October 2029, but the union said that doesn’t come close to the estimated $29-an-hour living wage in Halifax.
“Make no mistake, the majority of the members in long-term care still will not be close to a living wage even with our proposal that we had on the table in March, let alone what we did last night,” said Kim Cail, CUPE’s long-term care co-ordinator.
“But we are trying to get them a deal so they can get back to work to look after the residents they love. But even again, with our last proposal, it doesn’t bring anybody up even remotely close to the living wage.”
She also said CUPE’s members are well aware of the province’s original offer and have read it. Despite not having a direct vote, she said members voiced their opposition to the offer by choosing to strike.
“Legally in this province we are not required to take any offer back for a vote unless the elected bargaining committee has agreed to do it,” Cail said.
“In addition to that, we have a provincial protocol that outlines how the monetary items for our 52 nursing homes are negotiated at that lead table. And it is only that lead cable that gets to vote on that monetary package when and if the bargaining committee agrees that it’s worth taking back to them.”
But Adams said the members should be given the chance to vote on the offer itself.
“They have not had a chance to vote on the actual offer. And CUPE indicated last night they’re not even willing to take the offer to their members, and I don’t think that’s right,” she said.
No further bargaining dates have been set.
Maybe the province should deem them an essential service.