Unifor fights for wage hikes at retirement homes
Unifor has launched a public-relations battle against Chartwell Retirement Residences for “shamefully low wages” at its facilities across Ontario, including Essex County.
Unifor Local 2458 held a rally Monday outside Oak Park Terrace on North Service Road in Windsor, where workers have gone without a contract for two years. “This can’t go on the way it is,” said Local 2458 president Tullio DiPonti. “These workers work hard for what they’re making, which is minimum wage. It’s not even a living wage anymore.” Unifor is running its Pay Fair Chartwell campaign to “uncover realities” of working at seven of the company’s locations across Ontario. DiPonti said the local facilities without collective agreements include Oak Park Terrace in Windsor and Oak Park LaSalle. Unifor has a total of about 80 members at the homes, including nurses, dietitians, personal-support workers and maintenance. The campaign includes billboard advertisements, a petition calling on Chartwell CEO Brent Binions and board chairman Mike Harris to pay workers a “decent living wage,” and a video series called Ask Hilda. The videos are a union spin on a series of Chartwell promotional videos called Ask Edna. Chartwell did not return a phone call seeking comment. But the company distributed a letter at its facilities addressing the situation. Unifor gave copies to the media. The company said its compensation package is comparable to others in the sector and “above Employment Standards Act requirements.”
“We fully respect the right of our employees and the union to engage in activities including protest action,” Colleen Laing, vice-president of Operations, said in the letter. “I do want to share with you that it is our sincere belief that we have a history of fairness and respect for our employees that includes competitive wage rates and benefits that reflect the important skills and contributions of each employee.”
A couple dozen Unifor members and supporters waved signs and handed out information leaflets on Monday outside the Windsor residence.
“We want to let the public know the truth of what’s going on at this facility,” said DiPonti.
He said most of the employees are making minimum wage, and the company wants to freeze those wages.
“They’re telling us minimum wage is where they should be,” said DiPonti. “In fact, because of Wynne’s increase in the minimum wage, they think that the members we have here should be frozen to the year 2020 before they get another raise. So we want to let the public know it’s unacceptable. “They’re always short staffed, and we’re worried about the residents in here. So the campaign is right through Ontario and we want to bring attention to what’s going on at Chartwell.”
DiPonti said the employees are also short-staffed and over worked because not enough new people are entering the industry. “We’re at a crisis,” he said. “We’re trying to say better working conditions, money is the main issue. You can’t be coming to work for $14 an hour and have the ministry on your case, the company on your case, the family members on your case, and get paid that much.”