Nursing home workers strike looming in New Brunswick

Families of New Brunswick nursing home residents are scrambling to find a solution, as a strike vote is held next week by unionized home workers.

Management at those homes are now calling families to ask for help.

“They’re incontinent, so who’s doing the changing of the diapers and all this stuff? I said they can’t expect the families to be doing that. We’re going to try to do our best to help them out but I said this is not really what we signed up for,” said Moncton resident Gerry Mallais, whose aunt is a resident at Villa Providence in Shediac, N.B.

Mallais has been asked to either bring his aunt home for the duration of a potential strike, or to go into Villa Providence to care for her. His Aunt is in a wheelchair, suffers from Alzheimer’s and needs a lift to get out of bed.

“That’s why we moved her to a facility. That was specific to her care and the service was great until this all came about,” said Mallais.

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More than 4,100 workers represented by Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) will participate in a strike vote next week. They’ve been without a contract for 28 months. The 45 locals are collectively represented by the New Brunswick Council of Nursing Home Unions.

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An offer was put on the table by the New Brunswick Association of Nursing Homes in May but rejected by the union. That deal included full wage parity with the hospital sector. The not-for-profits are funded by the province.

“As a result of CUPE’s rejection, and our inability to offer money beyond the standard set by the hospital sector, we have reached an impasse,” said the association’s executive director, Jodi Hall.

“After CUPE rejected the deal, we returned to the table several times and remain willing to return to the table to work on signing an agreement.”

Employees, which include practical nurses, resident attendants and support staff, are looking for wage increases that are in line with inflation. They’d also like to see more staff hired and more hours of care for residents.

“You can’t just wave a magic wand and all of the sudden miraculously have 300 or 400 more staff to work in nursing homes in the province but they’re saying for the toll its taking on them, they want to be compensated for the work that they’re having to put in,” said Patrick Roy, a coordinator with the New Brunswick Nursing Home Unions.

Legally, a strike vote could take place on March 4 but the union says they won’t take a vote until at least March 7.