June 5, 2024
Time to respect workers in LTC
QUEEN’S PARK – This morning, MPP France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) rose in the legislature to highlight that workers at the Elizabeth Centre in Val Caron have been without a collective agreement for two years.
“Mine Mill UNIFOR Local 598 members from Sudbury travelled to the headquarters of Jarlette Health Services on Monday to hold an information picket in support workers at the Elizabeth Centre in Val Caron. Why did union members from Sudbury get on a bus early in the morning to travel 3 hours to Midland speaker? Because the workers at the Elizabeth Centre have been without a collective agreement since 2022, two long years.
This is happening under this government’s watch. With so little resources at the ministry of labour, once an employer asks for arbitration it does not take days, weeks or months to get it done. It takes years!
That’s right speaker, retirees and workers on their day off, travelled down to the headquarters to “remind” management that these workers need a new contract. The Elizabeth Centre is a Long-Term Care (LTC) home that houses 128 residents in the centre of my riding. The Unifor members working there look after frail, elderly residents. They are dealing with the same cost of living challenges that every Ontarian faces. Many of them can barely afford rent never mind a car payment. They need a new collective agreement now, but here we are, two years after their last contract ended these workers are left to wait and wait and wait.
I hope the government agrees that this must stop, these workers need a new collective agreement now. Let’s show LTC workers a bit of respect, they certainly deserve it.”