The union representing workers at the Caressant Care nursing home here is hoping a public campaign will draw the company back to the bargaining table for new contract talks.
Robert Buchanan, national representative with Unifor, which represents about 106 workers at the Harriston facility, said talks between the sides have broken off with no contract. The latest contract expired at the end of April.
Workers held a public information rally at the company’s head office in Woodstock to make the public aware of their concerns.
Unifor represents about 360 registered practical nurses, personal support workers, housekeeping and laundry aides and activity personnel at Caressant Care homes in Courtland, Woodstock, Harriston and St. Thomas. The talks do not involve Caressant Care facilities in Fergus and Arthur.
The contract talks involve workers at all the facilities with the exception of St. Thomas, where the current contract does not expire until September.
“The company has told the workers it will not agree to a pay raise during the life of the next contract,” Unifor officials stated in a media release. “Their last contract, imposed by an arbitrator, also contained no wage improvements.”
“Since April 2011 their pay rate hasn’t increased,” Buchanan told the Advertiser in a telephone interview. “The large majority are part-timers.”
He estimates between 85 and 90 per cent of those working in the Harriston home are part-time workers. The average wage is $20, Buchanan added.
The part-time ratio is an issue with the union, which claims residents of nursing homes would better served by full-time workers.
“In the first round of bargaining this company has stonewalled,” Buchanan said.
The union workers are considered essential staff and can not go on strike or work-to-rule to back their demands. Buchanan declined to comment directly on how much the workers are looking for in an hourly increase.
“We’re just looking for them to give them (workers) some money,” he said.
In the last arbitration agreement workers received an overall increase of less than $200 a year, Buchanan said.
The issue went to a provincial conciliator.
“She was unable to get the sides closer together,” Buchanan said.
Neither side has asked for it to go to arbitration.
“We’re in a bit of a stalemate.”
The union is contemplating options open to its members and Buchanan said he expects more public rallies.
Efforts to reach the company for comment were unsuccessful, despite an assurance Caressant Care’s communication officer would get back to the Advertiser.
