CUPE holds solidarity rally outside Villa Marconi, amid growing pile-up in the laundry department

Ottawa – The residents of Villa Marconi are running out of clean laundry, and it is due to negligent policy making by management. In June, members of CUPE 4793 held an information picket outside the long-term care facility on Baseline Road to call out the callous layoffs in the laundry and environmental services department. Since then, management has cut hours for union workers and begun a campaign of retaliation and harassment against union members.

Workers have been sent home from their scheduled shifts to be replaced by agency contractors and faced intimidation and harassment from management if they push back. “These union-busting tactics are an insult within an insult,” said Sherry Wallace, CUPE’s Long-Term Care sector coordinator. “The employer has refused to meet with the union to negotiate a fair collective agreement for years and now are making these cuts to services which leave the residents at risk.”

Due to the cuts, laundry has begun piling up in the home. Residents are going without clean clothing and clean linens due to management’s understaffing in the laundry room. PSWs and other primary care workers are being forced to leave their primary care duties to try and make up the difference. This is causing increased stress on the already over-extended staff.

“It’s unsustainable,” said Charmaine Sutton Archer, President of CUPE 4793. “These cuts hurt workers and residents. The employer needs to fix their mistake.”

CUPE 4793 members have been without a collective agreement since 2023. The employer has been refusing to meet with the union to discuss matters of concern or negotiate a collective agreement. Interest Arbitration has been scheduled for April of 2027.