Maples, Oakview Place staff give union strike mandate

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This article was published 21/09/2023 (980 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After working the front lines of some of Manitoba’s most devastating COVID-19 outbreaks, workers at Maples and Oakview Place long-term personal care homes seeking better pay and benefits have voted in favour of a strike.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees — representing Extendicare Maples (500 Mandalay Dr.) and Extendicare Oakview Place (2395 Ness Ave.) —said the 350 combined members voted 99 per cent in favour of the mandate.

While such a mandate does not guarantee a strike will happen, local union leadership said staff are fed up.

“We don’t understand. We’re the ones who are there for the residents, we are the one who’s spending hours with the residents,” CUPE Local 2719 president Virginia Monton, who represents Maples staff, said Thursday.

“Meanwhile, we don’t where the recognition is.”

Both Winnipeg care homes were formerly operated by Ontario-based Revera Inc. On Aug. 1, a deal to transfer full operations of 31 former Revera properties in Manitoba and Ontario to Extendicare Inc. was completed.

CUPE is pushing for wage increases and improvements to benefits that are in parity with the public sector.

Hourly wages for the private-run Extendicare homes are $2-$4 less than their provincially-owned home peers, CUPE national servicing representative Nino Jurial said. As a result, employees are leaving, he added.

“In other words, we are caring for the residents, we do our best to care for the residents, but nobody’s taking care of us.”

A rally was held at Maples to announce the strike vote Thursday, and information sessions will be held for members in the coming weeks as negotiations continue, Monton said.

“Now that the pandemic is over, we are hoping that the recognition will be there from our new employer, Extendicare, to at least recognize that there’s a need to increase the hourly rate of pay,” she said. “Due to the fact that they know for a fact that they’re having a hard time to recruit new employees, and they’re having a hard time keeping long-time employees, as well.”

An Extendicare spokesperson offered few details on negotiations, but said the Markham, Ont.-based company would “continue to work with CUPE through ongoing discussions.”

Maples was thrown into crisis at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when 56 residents died in an outbreak declared Oct. 20, 2020, and ended Jan. 12, 2021. In that time, 157 residents and 74 staff were infected.

An external review released in February 2021 found the home was critically understaffed and suggested the shortage should have triggered a “system-wide response involving provincial incident command, SWAT teams, mandatory redeployment, and potential emergency orders.”

Extendicare faced an eerily similar outbreak and post-outbreak review in Saskatchewan in November 2020, after a 28-day COVID-19 outbreak at its Parkside facility in Regina ended after 39 residents died.

A report from Saskatchewan’s ombudsman called Extendicare “badly prepared” to handle the outbreak.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority then formally took control of Parkside and four other such Extendicare homes in the province, transferring around 1,300 employees to the SHA in the process.

Manitoba Health Coalition provincial director Thomas Linner called it “shameful” Extendicare was able to begin operations in Manitoba.

“The Saskatchewan Party government next door is not a particularly socialist government. But they did find it within themselves to say that Extendicare’s model was not working for Saskatchewan,” he said at Thursday’s rally.

“If Saskatchewan can do it, I think Manitoba can, as well, and reap the benefits of a much more client-focused, resident-focused set of services, rather than a for-profit model that simply looks to cut corners at every opportunity.”

Maples staff’s contract expired in May 2019; Oakview Place’s expired in March 2022.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca