Care home workers stage rally

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This article was published 30/09/2023 (1097 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Some residents and family members joined union staff for an information rally outside Brandon’s Valleyview Extendicare on Victoria Avenue on Friday to demand better wages, benefits and treatment for workers.

Extendicare is a for-profit, long-term care provider that operates nine facilities in Manitoba, including two in the Wheat City: Valleyview and Hillcrest Place, employing 181 members of Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

There are concerns that Extendicare is putting shareholders’ needs before workers and residents, said CUPE Manitoba president Gina McKay, who was in Brandon to support the rally.

“This is about profits going straight to the shareholders. So we’re here to expose it, and we’re also here to say these workers deserve more,” McKay said.

Extendicare has dispersed more than $84 million in dividends to shareholders since the summer of 2021, said McKay, who added their employees are making about $4 an hour less than those in the public sector.

“So we have workers here and all through Manitoba who are working to take care of our parents, our grandparents, elders and seniors, working day in and day out from their heart, and they’re ($2) to $4 an hour off the base wage of public service workers. So, we’re really looking at equal pay for equal work,” McKay said.

The rally included about two dozen people — staff and supporters who carried signs that said, “Care home workers deserve a fair deal” and “For the care we all deserve.” Some waved CUPE flags and others chanted “What do we want? Fair wages. When do we want them? Yesterday.”

April McDonald, national service representative for CUPE, told the Sun that some employees have had problems with payroll, including holiday time being paid when not requested, missing paycheques and at times not being able to log onto the online payroll system.

Lila McGee works at Valleyview, and said not only are they always short-staffed, but they’re constantly losing people to the hospital where the wages are better.

“$16.78 an hour is our starting rate, and the highest is $20.59. I’ve been here for 28 years, and if I went to the hospital now, I would be making about $3 more an hour than what I am making right now. But really, it’s the residents that are important, and they are behind us. They want us to get more staff so that they’re not having to be told, ‘Just wait a minute, we’re busy, we’ll be with you as soon as we can.’ They’re tired of that, too,” McGee said.

Valleyview resident Helen Janzen wheeled down the sidewalk alongside the others carrying a sign of support and said the workers are like friends, but they don’t stay around long enough because of their wage.

“You can’t expect people that are good, to work for less than $20 an hour. That’s not decent. I know what’s going on and it’s so understaffed. It’s just terrible. And they’re quitting. Somebody quits every week,” Janzen said.

Patti Malchy, also a Valleyview resident, agreed, and said she has noticed shortages of food.

“Extendicare is the second-largest owner of private-care homes in North America, and they have to answer to their shareholders. They’re not in this for their health, or ours,” Malchy said.

The union employees are now bargaining with Extendicare over monetary issues, and Hillcrest is set to begin bargaining soon, according to CUPE.

The Sun reached out to Extendicare for comment about employee wages and the rally in Brandon.

“Regardless of who owns a long-term care home in the province, wages for care teams are publicly funded in Manitoba. We value our relationships with our union partners and are committed to ongoing and productive discussions with CUPE, in support of our teams, and of high-quality care for those we serve,” an Extendicare spokesperson stated in an email.

While the rally carried on outside, residents and other staff could be seen looking out the windows of the Valleyview personal care home.

David Wilkin was one of the curious onlookers. His mother was a one-time employee, he said. She now has dementia, and is a resident there.

“I think that the workers here deserve all the support we can give them. It’s a tough job, and we have an aging population. My mom has dementia, and I know they’ve treated her very, very well here. And they have my full support.”

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

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