Long-term care union and N.S. back to bargaining table Wednesday
The union representing long-term care workers is heading back to the bargaining table with the provincial government later Wednesday afternoon.
Seven weeks into the strike, representatives from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and the government will meet with the help of the Chief Conciliation Officer, according to a news release from the union.
“We agreed to go back to the table in the hopes that, this time, the government will come with an offer that brings all long term care workers closer to a living wage instead of the same tired deal they’ve been presenting over and over, both at the table and in the media,” wrote Christa Sweeney, long term and community care committee chair, in the release.
This comes the same day as another long-term care home, Glen Haven Manor, in New Glasgow, has joined the strike, bringing the total amount of workers off the job to about 3,600.
Kim Cail, the CUPE coordinator for long-term care workers, says the government had a list of stipulations for them returning to the bargaining table, but CUPE maintains their stance that they will not send an offer to union members if they are not fully confident in it.
“The only vote we will have is a ratification vote after reaching a tentative agreement. That is the standard process and what was agreed to in our Lead Table Protocol, as the government is well aware, and that’s what we will do,” wrote Cail in the release.
During an interview with Acadia News, Cail said correspondence has been going back and forth for weeks, and that she’s keeping her expectations low going into the next meeting with officials.
“We’ve heard that, you know, there is a little movement on their side, but that’s the extent of what they’ve said. I will be thoroughly and pleasantly surprised, if they actually come to the table with something new than what they have been offering since last August,” Cail explains, adding, “You can forgive me if I don’t get my hopes up because I did that the 7th of May and we got stomped on, right?”
She says she feels as though the bargaining committee is being bullied “because they just keep hammering away at the same thing” and that officials are refusing to settle a deal “unless we take their last offer for a vote.”
Cail clarifies that, under the Trade Union Act, they don’t have to deliver any offer to members that the bargaining committee doesn’t agree is fair. She says there is a signed provincial protocol that outlines the process of how negotiations happen.
“Under that provincial protocol, it is only our lead table that have the ability to vote on an offer, and it must be an offer that the elected bargaining committee is recommending acceptance. We have not received anything that the bargaining committee is willing to accept, let alone take for a vote,” Cail explains.
“We’re not doing that. We’re not going to permit this government to bully the locals.”
