Musquodoboit Long Term Care Workers Vote to Strike

Long term care workers from The Birches Nursing Home, represented by Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 3199, voted 99% in favour of a strike vote last week, citing poor wages as their largest outstanding issue.

“The ever-increasing cost of living in Nova Scotia has stretched everyone thin, and we aren’t any different,” said CUPE 3199 President Sherry Hutt. “My fellow members are struggling to make ends meet, to support their families or just themselves, and that’s not sustainable. How are we supposed to provide the best possible care when we can’t afford to take care of ourselves?”

CUPE 3199 is 1 of over 50 CUPE nursing homes in the province taking part in coordinated bargaining, which aims to improve the wages and working conditions in Nova Scotian long term care homes.

“They’re understaffed, overworked, and underpaid. That’s the simple truth,” said CUPE Long Term Care Coordinator Tammy Martin, “but it feels like the government is okay with that. They’re okay with our long term care workers being the lowest paid in Atlantic Canada, with 5.8% of them leaving the sector in the last 10 months alone. Me? I’m not okay with that and neither are these workers. We need to do better and the responsibility for why we’re not falls directly at the government’s feet and their refusal to pay them fairly.”

CUPE long term care workers in the Sydney area will be gathering outside the Mayflower Mall on December 5^th from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. for an information picket to raise further awareness about their bargaining issues.

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