‘They’ve given up that dignity’ Resident’s horrified sister jumps in as strangers’ caregiver in strike-stricken living facility for disabled By: Malak Abas Posted: 3:53 PM CST Thursday, Mar. 7, 2024 Last Modified: 5:59 PM CST Thursday, Mar. 7, 2024 Updates

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Lori Ross and her sister Chris took it upon themselves to help disabled residents of a Ten Ten Sinclair Housing facility on the second day of a strike by more than 150 unionized health-care workers employed by the non-profit.

Lori, 66, had polio and uses a wheelchair. She has lived at Fokus II, a Kennedy Street independent living facility, for more than 40 years. She called her sister for help after the caregivers walked off the job Wednesday in a fight over wages.

Many of the other 14 residents at Fokus II don’t have the same support from loved ones, so the pair have been checking up on them. Chris has helped with food and basic care.

“If I wasn’t phoning them, who would check on them? How would we know that any one of them is dead?” Lori said Thursday.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and Ten Ten Sinclair have retained some home-care workers who have appeared sporadically, but there is no set schedule.

The sisters said some residents who have been able to lead independent lives with the support of health aides have been forced to lay for hours in soiled bedding, unable to turn on lights and going without baths and meals.

“I’m walking in, and they’re in bed, and all the lights are all off, and because of their disability… (some) are not sleeping with pajamas, because you can’t turn, because the clothing catches, because of whatever else,” Chris said, holding back tears.

“So you’re naked, I’m coming to your door to say — and I’m a stranger, you’ve never, ever met me before — ‘Hey, can I help you?’ And they need the help… they’ve given up that dignity.”

Ten Ten Sinclair Housing Inc. supports approximately 100 people with physical disabilities and other challenges at seven facilities across the city.

Most workers on strike are health-care aides represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees of Manitoba who’ve been without a contract for four years.

Lori and Chris said they’re fiercely supportive of the strike.

“We were all hoping and praying that this would be handled. But when you don’t sign a contract for four years, you don’t get the staff that do everything for us any raises — how can you expect them not to do something?” Lori said.

If the strike drags on, she’ll move into her sister’s home, but she loses sleep at night thinking of other tenants who have no one else to rely on.

“The staff are like family. I have a big family,” she said. “For a lot of people, it’s their only family.”

“We were all hoping and praying that this would be handled. But when you don’t sign a contract for four years, you don’t get the staff that do everything for us any raises — how can you expect them not to do something?”–Lori Ross

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara, responding to questions in the legislature Thursday, said department staff has been in regular contact with the WRHA about the walkout.

“The top priority for our government in the dispute… is to ensure residents… receive the care they depend on,” Asagwara said, adding residents should contact their MLA or their office.

Tory critic Kathleen Cook said she was contacted by a resident who, as of mid-morning Thursday, was still waiting to hear about getting help.

“I do not think that that’s adequate care,” Cook said.

The WRHA funds Ten Ten Housing’s operation costs, including wages, but said Wednesday it is not involved in negotiations with the union.

CUPE Manitoba president Gina McKay disagreed, calling the WRHA’s funding commitments a “sticking point” to ending the strike or having it drag on.

“That operational funding needs to be secured from the WRHA for Ten Ten Sinclair to be able to make those offers, and so they are a part of the bargaining process in that way,” she said. “CUPE wants the WRHA to step up.”

The first night of the strike, 52-year-old Tom Jones, who has muscular dystrophy, considered sleeping in his wheelchair, worried no one would be there to get him up and ready for his work as an engraver.

He’s had the same aides helping him through the day for the entire 12 years he’s been at Fokus II. The staff know his routine, which gives him a sense of security and independence that he’s lost during the strike.

Jones has known his primary aide for a decade, and said he can’t remember a single time he’s taken a sick day.

“Heaven forbid someone gets seriously hurt,” he said. “Just pay the workers what they deserve.”

He’s fearful of what will happen to him if the strike drags on. He uses a BiPAP machine, which helps him breathe throughout the night, and is a struggle for him to navigate the equipment without help.

“In the back of my mind, I can guarantee… I’m going to get stranded in my bed,” he said.

“And it’s not good for me, because… lying there even longer than 5:30, six o’clock in the morning, my chest starts to get sore, I start having problems breathing — I need to sit up. If I can’t get up, then what happens to me?”

Nolan Smith briefly worked for Ten Ten Sinclair years before a 2018 accident left him a quadriplegic and he moved into the non-profit organization’s Fokus I building on Assiniboine Avenue.

The culture of independent community living at the facility has degraded in recent years as tenants have less input into the scheduling and standard of their care, he said.

“There’s no time for me to make kimchi or to transplant succulents, or do anything outside of what is basic care, essential care,” said Smith, 44. “And it’s disheartening, because I know what the independent living philosophy is meant to be.”

That feeling has been exacerbated by the strike. He said he and other tenants were told by Ten Ten Sinclair that their level of care would not change, but it degraded almost immediately.

“As much as I support the strike, it’s upsetting to be told outright in emails — and not just one email — that care is going to be covered, my schedule will not change, and people are going to show up and everything’s going to be tickety-boo,” he said.

“It’s been a whole lot of boo, no tickety.”

He is scheduled to be turned during the night to help prevent bedsores, and was turned hours later than scheduled Wednesday night. Without tightly scheduled care, the pressure ulcers can develop. If his catheter gets twisted and a staff member isn’t there in time, he could be sent into autonomic dysreflexia, which can result in a heart attack.

He called it “disgusting and reprehensible” that some people in Ten Ten Sinclair Housing have gone without basic necessities, noting some are left both mentally and physically vulnerable by their disabilities.

“Being injured in such such a catastrophic way, and having a large portion of your life stolen from you, you’re trying to figure out how to reintegrate into life with with parts of you that are missing, and there’s all all sorts of grieving that takes place within that,” he said.

“Some people really take off and some people withdraw. So I have major concerns for folks.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca