We’re stressed and burned out

“We’re here for more staffing, better wages and no more profit,” says one of those members Ruby, referencing the priorities that were voted on by these members at demand-setting meetings last March. “It’s time to fix the industry. We don’t have enough staff to provide care to residents and funding keeps going away. They’re cutting RNs and personal support workers (PSWs). It’s affecting care.”

The information pickets, which followed on the heels of a sticker up day of action, were just the latest in a series of escalating actions to support ONA’s Nursing Homes Provincial Negotiating Team as they commenced bargaining with nursing home employers this spring.

Unfortunately, in late April, talks broke down as those employers came to the table with insulting concessions and regressive proposals that are completely inconsistent with the realities of our members on the front lines. Once again, we headed to arbitration, held in the middle of June, and now wait the decision of the arbitrator. Learn more here.

The breakdown in negotiations came at a time when for-profit nursing home employers such as Extendicare, one of the largest for-profit chains in Canada, are making record profit in the millions. At the same time long-term care (LTC) nurses make, on average, 10.8 per cent less than their counterparts in hospitals, while fighting against all odds to provide high-quality, timely resident care.

Enough is enough

Members walking the pavement at the 47 information picket locations throughout the province, waving our bright green Care not Profit and Respect Can’t Wait signs to the passing cars, handing out flyers and talking to the public, made it clear that enough is enough.

“Residents are always miserable because we’re not able to spend enough time with them,” explains Julianna, a PSW at one of those locations. “Years ago, when we came to work, we’d have a lot of exercises to do with them. But now, they’re sitting down doing nothing because we’re concentrating on somebody in bed. We can't sit down with anyone anymore. Sometimes we have to rely on the RNs to come and help us feed and transfer the residents. But they have to do their jobs too and sometimes there’s only one of them. And so, what then? This hurts us because we love our residents.” 

She adds that it also hurts their families because “we’re so overworked, we go home stressed and burned out every day.” 

Navpreet, a former PSW who recently became an RN, concurs, but noted that “with proper staffing ratios, we don’t have to work more and more with less. We’re able to balance our workloads and can actually rest on our days off. We also want the same wages as hospitals nurses.”

For Mirali, who stresses that LTC is a critical component of our health-care system and not separate from hospitals, that’s key.  

“We went through the same training and have the same qualifications as nurses in other health-care sectors, but don’t get paid the same. It makes it hard to retain staff in long-term care.” 

In a recent Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions Member Survey Report, seven in 10 nurses mentioned staffing, workload and lack of work-life balance as extremely important when considering leaving.  

The blame

But these members know where to put the blame and it’s squarely with the Ford government for creating this problem in the first place.   

“My message to Premier Doug Ford is to stop privatization and diverting money away from the public health-care system,” says Joan, whose members took shifts picketing outside their nursing homes. “The government has created the environment for privatization of this health-care system to thrive.” 

“These province-wide information pickets showcase the urgency our members feel to obtain a good deal that serves their residents, coworkers and communities,” concludes ONA Provincial President Erin Ariss, who attended an information picket in London. “Respect can’t wait. Nursing home CEOs must stop the greed and finally put care over profits.” 

View dozens of photos and videos from our sticker up action and information pickets on ONA’s Facebook page.

Visit our Nursing homes bargaining page for regular updates, helpful resources and information on how you can get involved in this campaign.