The union directive for an early morning April 24 strike at the Heritage Life Personal Care Home (HLPCH) in Niverville has been called off.
According to the Niverville Heritage Centre’s executive director, Ron Parent, a tentative agreement was reached late on April 23 between Manitoba Health and the union’s bargaining committee, Operating Engineers of Manitoba Local 987.
The tentative deal has yet to be ratified by union members, but Parent says he’s hopeful that a strike may have been averted and the HLPCH can soon return to business as usual.
The exact terms of the deal are still unclear.
“If I had to make a guess at this point, it’s that they are being provided with retroactive wages and benefits that align with the provincial agreement,” Parent says. “[Right now], everybody here is just very happy. It’s a good day!”
HLPCH union workers include healthcare aides, housekeepers, laundry, and recreational staff.
New contract terms laid out by union workers had been all but agreed upon earlier this month. The one snag they hit was the retroactive wage and benefits compensation.
Parent says the request wasn’t unreasonable. Union workers of the HLPCH have been working without a contract since March 31, 2022. But the final decision didn’t lie in the hands of Heritage Centre administrators.
As strike action was starting to look imminent, Parent began sending notifications to family members of the residents of the HLPCH.
“As a non-profit, community-based personal care home which is part of the Heritage Centre, a social enterprise, we rely heavily on funding from Southern Health-Santé Sud (SHSS) for financial support required to meet the needs of those living within our Home and the community,” Parent told them.
This funding, he said, ultimately comes from Manitoba Health but is governed through a service purchase agreement with SHSS. The current SHSS agreement did not account for retroactive wages or benefits for the workers.
“As a not-for-profit, we do not have the resources to fund retroactive wages and benefits,” Parent continued. “SHSS remains a strong partner in supporting all our needs, which includes completing our negotiations.”
When weekend negotiations failed to meet those demands, Local OE987 announced a strike date for the morning of April 23. The strike was then called off for 24 hours, within which time, according to Parent, Manitoba Health and union reps were able to reach an agreement.
As to the reason the workers haven’t seen a contract renewal since 2022, Parent says he’s unclear on all the details. He feels, though, that negotiations were likely halted when his predecessor took an unexpected leave of absence during that time.
Parent assumed the position of executive director for the Heritage Centre campus in fall of 2023. He and his team have been in negotiations with the union since that time.
Niverville resident Brenda Dux has worked in the healthcare field for more than 25 years. She’s worked with seniors in a personal care home setting and has been a direct support professional working with people with disabilities.
She was also glad for the years she was represented by a union who fought for her rights to a fair wage and reasonable working conditions.
Dux understands the plight of the HLPCH workers who were about to take to the picket lines.
“People don’t understand how difficult [the job] is,” Dux says. “[Workers] risk injury and mental, physical, and emotional burnout. [When there’s a shortage of] staff, they have to work hours and hours without gratitude.”
Dux says she’s experienced these challenges firsthand and witnessed many others go through the same. Burnout, exhaustion, and minor injury among staff are oftentimes overlooked when senior administrators need people you to show up to perform a job.
This doesn’t just cost the worker, Dux adds. It can come at a cost to patients.
“It can happen to the best of workers,” Dux says. “You do what you need to do and, in the end, you’re just exhausted.”
