Nova Scotians with family members in long-term care facilities say they’re feeling a sense of relief as unionized workers begin voting on a tentative contract eight weeks into a strike.
CUPE, which represents about 3,600 striking staff, reached a tentative agreement with the province over the weekend.
Tabatha Khoury, whose 75-year-old father is a resident at Glasgow Hall in Dartmouth, says she’s feeling somewhat optimistic.
“We’ve been so defeated,” she said.
“It felt like since the beginning of this, we all didn’t know it was going to go on so long and now we were at a point where something had to give.”
On Saturday, CUPE said all picket lines at 36 facilities were standing down and staff would return to work Monday.
The union says workers at St. Vincent’s Nursing Home in Halifax, which is part of the lead bargaining unit, will vote on the tentative agreement first. If approved, all other striking locals will then get their say.
The union says in a statement that its negotiators have unanimously recommended that workers endorse the deal.
Details of the agreement won’t be made public until members have voted.
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The employees’ collective agreements expired in October 2023. CUPE has previously said it was pushing for higher wages that brought members closer to a living wage and better benefits.
During the strike, staff were required to rotate shifts under the province’s essential services agreement, meaning some were bouncing between the picket line and work, while limited services were provided inside the homes.
Khoury says she visited her father every day during the strike and worried about the lack of attention she felt he was receiving.
“And because my dad, I guess, can’t communicate very well, he’d be one of the first to go to bed,” she said.
“I’d go to visit him in the evenings and at six at night, he was in bed, lights out for the evening.”
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James Green, whose 72-year-old wife, Viola, is a resident at Harbourview Haven Nursing Home, says it was difficult watching her endure the weeks-long strike.
“I did a lot of crying to be honest with you because we didn’t know what was going on after I left, right?” he said.
Green says he’d stop into the home twice a day, feeding his wife and making sure she was dressed.
“People that could dress themselves got dressed, but people like my wife can’t get dressed. They were all in Johnny shirts,” he said.
Green said he was “delighted” to hear the two sides had reached a tentative agreement and is hopeful the workers get what they deserve, if they do accept it.
“You couldn’t put a money value on what these people do,” he said.
“These women and men, they don’t stop for 12 hours. They’re constantly going and it’s not easy work and it is not good work. You know what I mean? I don’t have to tell you what it’s like in a nursing home.”
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