Winnipeg – An overwhelming majority (94%) of employees at Maples Personal Care Home voted in favour of a strike mandate in a vote conducted on Friday, June 28th.
These employees include health care aides, dietary aides and kitchen staff. Bargaining reached a stalemate over fair wages and employees calling for increased staffing in the personal care home.
“We are often working short-staffed” states Virginia Monton, President of CUPE Local 2719, “this means that we are unable to safely do our jobs”. Working short staffed occurs when there are not enough health care aides per shift to adequately care for all residents. This leads to employees struggling to fill the gap in the workload and can lead to stress, additional sick time and an unsafe work environment.
“Our members care very deeply for the residents at Maples Personal Care Home” states Paula Raposo, CUPE National Representative, “we want to ensure that every resident receives the level of care and attention they deserve”.
In addition to the staffing levels, CUPE members are calling for a fair wage increase to bring them up to similar levels found at other personal care homes operated by Revera.
On July 18th, the parties will meet with a Conciliation Officer to work towards addressing these important issues.
The tentative strike date is set for July 22nd.