Want better pay, more permanent contracts, and better patient-to-staff ratio, says union
Brian Capitao
Vaughan Citizen
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
Long-term-care home workers in York Region are protesting for better work conditions.
On Tuesday, Nov. 22, a small picket outside the Health Centre of Maple set up in the cold to demand better conditions for staff.
The top three issues among workers are wages, more permanent contracts, and a better staff-to-resident ratio for long-term care workers. The LTC unit has not seen a wage increase since April of 2019.
As many health-care workers bore the brunt of the pandemic on the front lines, many are now feeling burnt out. Long-term-care workers are pleading with York Region to ameliorate the work conditions.
“They’ve been working on the front line all through this pandemic. Many of them have gotten sick multiple times from the workplace and caught COVID,” said Katherine Grzejszczak, president of CUPE Local 905.
“It is causing burnout … We have many situations where staff get injured here and can no longer come back to these workplaces. We’ve seen an increase in that, obviously for the duration of the pandemic. And front-line staff are just overwhelmed. They’re absolutely fatigued. They’re constantly working overtime,” added Grzejszczak.
Among the rank-and-file was a familiar face to those keeping up with negotiations — CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn.
“I think we all learned over the last number of years just how important these workers are, how necessary they are to our communities, to making sure our parents and grandparents have the kind of care that they deserve,” said Hahn.
However, York Region plans on cutting 100 jobs in the new year, according to the union.
An email sent to staff details some contracts set to expire in November, December and January will not be up for renewal.
Many of them are personal support workers (PSWs) who are on temporary full-time contracts, hired during the onset of the pandemic.
This is a step in the wrong direction, said Hahn.
“There’s a need for more workers and having people who are temporary and strung along and therefore treated differentially doesn’t make sense. When a worker has already been there, part of the team, they know the residents, they know the vendors. Then it should be that that person has a pathway to actually get a full-time job with some permanency,” added Hahn.
According to the union’s collective agreement, workers employed beyond 24 months are supposed to be on track to permanent positions.
Patrick Casey, director of corporate communications for the Region of York, said in a prepared statement the region is transitioning from an upstaffing model used during the pandemic.
“To be clear, these are not layoffs; staff will be returned to their previous status of permanent part-time or casual,” said Casey. “York Region will offer extensions to all eligible staff who have not reached 24 months in their current temporary assignment; long term care management will reach out to eligible staff over the next several weeks to offer extensions.”
Agreements with other bargaining units, CUPE Local 905 York Region Unit (YRU) and the Ontario Nurses Association (ONA), were reached in the summer.
https://www.yorkregion.com/news-story/10798044-cupe-local-905-long-term-care-workers-protest-for-better-work-conditions-outside-health-centre-of-maple/