Employees resoundingly reject employer’s proposed freeze on wages and working conditions
Members of the Hospital Employees’ Union working at Royal City Manor, a long-term care facility in New Westminster, have voted 100 per cent in favour of job action to back efforts to achieve a fair collective agreement.
Talks broke down last month after the employer demanded a freeze on wages and working conditions in a one-year agreement that would expire December 31, 2000. All non-monetary issues had been settled.
“The employer’s offer is an insult to the workers and completely unacceptable,” says HEU assistant secretary-business manager Zorica Bosancic. “We want to bargain seriously and have tabled reasonable terms on a range of issues. Royal City Manor’s position has done nothing to move talks forward and has forced our members to take job action.”
The union is seeking wage and benefit improvements that include pay rates in line with those of workers in the facilities sector.
There are more than 100 HEU members working at Royal City Manor as care and activity aides, housekeepers, and laundry, maintenance, food services and clerical workers.
Royal City Manor is owned by CPL Long-Term Care Real Estate Investment Trust (CPL REIT), the largest private, for-profit owner/operator of long-term care facilities in Canada.