Support workers had to take action

Elmwood Residences Inc. operates a number of group homes in Saskatoon.

SEIU-West members who work as support workers provide residents with care and support to facilitate their daily living activities; they do everything from cleaning, cooking, personal care including bathing, transporting the residents to various activities, administering medications, planning events, scheduling medical appointments and snow removal. Our members enjoy the work they do and genuinely care about the residents.

This employer has sadly neglected their responsibility both to the residents and to the staff who care for them. Support workers at Elmwood Group Homes have not received a pay raise since 2013.

The employer has provided no genuine offer that demonstrates they value or even acknowledge the hard work and care being provided.

We should all understand that it is hard to provide a quality care environment with high turnover and staff burnout but that’s what you get when employees go for over four years with no pay raise.

It’s just too long.

Our members have patiently waded through the many technical requirements of our provincial labour legislation (The Saskatchewan Employment Act) over the last six months to ensure that any job action taken is legal.

Out of sheer frustration our members have chosen to begin job action by withdrawing specific non-vital transportation services for residents attending activities.

We hope that the residents and their family members recognize that SEIU-West members have exhausted every avenue to avoid taking job action.

They even wrote the board of directors in mid-January asking for their intervention. Please stand with Support Workers at Elmwood Group Homes in their pledge for fairness and respect.

Neil Colmin, Vice-President SEIU-West, Saskatoon