Long-term care workers in Lunenburg, N.S., join CUPE strike

Negotiations are breaking apart as the strike for CUPE workers at long-term care homes in Nova Scotia reaches the two-week mark.

A 30th long-term care home has joined the ongoing strike across Nova Scotia, according to a news release from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

CUPE Local 4919 at Lunenburg Home for Special Care in Lunenburg, N.S., will hit the picket line as early as Saturday if negotiations don’t pick up.

CUPE represents 52 long-term care facilities in Nova Scotia. The union submitted its 48-hour strike notice on April 10 and more than 2,200 workers started walking off the job on April 13.

“We are ready to go back to the table, and we have made that clear since day one of this strike,” said Christa Sweeney, CUPE long-term and community care committee chair, in a news release. “As soon as the province is willing to resume bargaining, we’ll resume bargaining. Until then, our momentum is only growing.”

Lunenburg Home for Special Care is the fifth group to join the strike this week with Grand View Manor, Magnolia Continuing Care Centre, Shiretown and Ivey’s Terrace Nursing Homes, and Maple Hill Manor starting job action Thursday.

The other striking care homes are:

• Grand View Manor in Berwick
• Magnolia Continuing Care Centre in Enfield
• Shiretown and Ivey’s Terrace Nursing Homes in Trenton
• Maple Hill Manor in New Waterford
• Maplestone Enhanced Care in Halifax
• St. Vincent’s Nursing Home in Halifax
• Harbourstone Enhanced Care in Sydney River
• Ocean View Continuing Care in Eastern Passage
• Admiral and White Hills Long Term Care Centres in Halifax
• Alderwood Rest Home in Baddeck
• Richmond Villa in St. Peter’s
• Northside Community Guest Home in North Sydney
• Bayside Home in Barrington
• Seaview Manor in Glace Bay
• Maritime Odd Fellows in Pictou
• Glen Haven Manor in New Glasgow
• Queen’s Manor in Liverpool
• Villa St. Joseph-du-Lac in Dayton
• Roseway Manor in Shelburne
• The Birches in Musquodoboit Harbour
• Port Hawkesbury Nursing Home in Port Hawkesbury
• Surf Lodge in Lockeport
• Ivy Meadows in Beaver Bank
• Glasgow Hall in Dartmouth
• Celtic Court in Membertou
• Bisset Court in Cole Harbour
• St. Anne Nursing Care Centre in Arichat
• Ryan Hall in Bridgewater
• The Meadows in Yarmouth

Workers at the St. Vincent nursing home in Halifax were back on the picket line Friday morning.

“It’s a good place to work but none of us want to be out here right now,” said Janet MacDonald, an LPN and CUPE local 1082 president. “But this is where we find ourselves today,”

The province maintains its offer is fair and in line with other long-term care agreements. Minister of Seniors and Long-Term Care Barbara Adams told reporters Thursday that unions need to present the offer to its members and let them decide on it.

“There are other unions including long-term care facilities, 29 in fact, who have their own bargaining units and have accepted this offer already,” said Adams.

Union reps say they have shown the offer to members and they don’t like it.

“My members have told me they’ve seen the deal,” said MacDonald. “We’ve had it on (the table) at numerous meetings and they do not want it. There’s nothing in there.”

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Jesse Thomas

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