About 3,000 long-term care workers on strike

Four more Nova Scotia long-term care homes hit the picket line as of 7 a.m., after issuing an official strike notice.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents workers at Grand View Manor, Magnolia Continuing Care Centre, Shiretown and Ivey’s Terrace Nursing Homes, and Maple Hill Manor, said staff are joining the growing number of workers on strike.

CUPE said this means if the government doesn’t return to the bargaining table, they will hit the picket line on Thursday and Friday.

“Government has been silent since this started except for the soundbites that Minister Adams keeps repeating in the media,” said CUPE long-term and community care committee chair Christa Sweeney. “We’ve been ready and willing to continue bargaining since we reached impasse on March 24, but they haven’t called us back to the table.”

This comes after 25 long-term care homes have already joined the picket line, bringing the number of workers to 3,000.

Work still happening but much slower inside homes

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 CUPE. 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, she said in an interview to The Canadian Press.

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.

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.

With files from Devin Stevens, The Canadian Press.