Saskatoon care home workers escalating strike action
Workers at group homes run by LutherCare Communities in Saskatoon are escalating their strike action.
Service Employees International Union West (SEIU-West) says starting May 1, they will withdraw some services including managing dirty duties and cutlery.
This is in addition to their existing withdrawal of transportation services for residents.
The two sides have been at odds over several issues during contract negotiations including wages and days off during the week.
SEIU-West says the employer suggested adding the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a holiday in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). However, they failed to mention their plan to offset the cost by reducing employees' wages by 1 per cent.
The union criticized this move, noting that management staff received the holiday without a similar wage deduction.
Earlier this week the union said shifts have become shorter, to the point that even full-time staff find themselves continuously working seven days a week to make up enough hours.
LutherCare Communities said it offered a fair package that includes a wage increase, increased medical care leave, and a signing bonus.
It said it could not offer every weekend off due to their commitment to provide 24-7 care, but it does schedule shifts to ensure team members get two days off each week.
"We have reached out on several occasions to the union asking for clarification on their position regarding our last offer and there has been no response to date," Chief People Officer Chad Okrainetz said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.
"We believe we have offered a fair package that includes a wage increase retroactive to April 1st, 2023, increased medical care leave, a signing bonus, and the inclusion of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a statutory holiday," Okrainetz said.
However, SEIU-West says it has always responded to the invitation to bargain.
“Any time the employer has contacted us, they have nothing new to offer,” Barbara Cape, President of SEIU-West said in the release. “We remain committed to achieving a fair Collective Agreement for our members.”
“Our members take no pleasure in the withdrawal of services, but it has taken far too long to get a fair deal to settle a long overdue Collective Agreement,” Cape added. “But until the Employer is ready to come to the table with a better proposal to conclude bargaining, the Union job action will continue.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Signs of Alzheimer’s were everywhere. Then his brain improved
Blood biomarkers of telltale signs of early Alzheimer’s disease in the brain of his patient, 55-year-old entrepreneur Simon Nicholls, had all but disappeared in a mere 14 months.
What we've learned so far in the Trump hush money trial and what to watch for as it wraps up
Testimony in the hush money trial of Donald Trump is set to conclude in the coming days, putting the landmark case on track for jury deliberations that will determine whether it ends in a mistrial, an acquittal — or the first-ever felony conviction of a former American president.
Sentencing trial set to begin for Florida man who executed 5 women at a bank in 2019
Zephen Xaver walked into a central Florida bank in 2019, fatally shot five women and then called police to tell them what he did. Now 12 jurors will decide whether the 27-year-old former prison guard trainee is sentenced to death or life without parole.
'How do you get hypothermia in a prison?' Records show hospitalizations among Virginia inmates
The Virginia State Police investigator seemed puzzled about what the inmate was describing: "unbearable" conditions at a prison so cold that toilet water would freeze over and inmates were repeatedly treated for hypothermia.
The Israel-Hamas war is testing whether campuses are sacrosanct places for speech and protest
Administrators on some campuses have called in local police to break up pro-Palestinian protesters demanding that their schools divest from Israel in demonstrations that Israel's allies say are antisemitic and make campuses unsafe. From Columbia University in New York to the University of California, Los Angeles, thousands of students and faculty have been arrested in the past month.
Helicopter carrying Iran's president suffers a 'hard landing,' state TV says without further details
A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi suffered a "hard landing" on Sunday, Iranian state television reported, without immediately elaborating.
Canadian immigration asks medical worker fleeing Gaza if he treated Hamas fighters
Lawyers are questioning Canada’s approach to screening visa applications for people in Gaza with extended family in Canada after one applicant, a medical worker, was asked whether he had treated members of Hamas.
The secret Italian lakes that most tourists don't know about
Italy has dozens of secret smaller lakes that boast superb scenery, unknown to mass tourism, where locals get together on day trips and enjoy picnics.
Flammable kids' sleepwear, salmonella-contaminated chips: Here are the recalls of this week
Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued recalls for various items this week, including kids' bassinets, chips, and stoves. Here's what to watch out for.