HAMILTON, ON – Support for 100 Hamilton care home front-line staff at Amica Dundas, who earn low wages and are negotiating a first contract, is building.
A community rally is planned for tomorrow, Friday, February 1, 2019 between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., outside Amica Dundas at 50 Hatt Street.
The Amica chain is owned by the powerful Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which has ethical investment principles that include labour rights and health safety among the criteria used to guide asset acquisition. Recently, the care home workers, who do not have a pension plan themselves, wrote the fund’s board alerting them of the challenges they’ve faced negotiating a first collective agreement.
The Amica Dundas workers opted to unionize last March with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) by joining CUPE 1404, which represents about 800 Hamilton area long-term care staff. In Ontario, CUPE represents about 30,000 long-term care and retirement home staff including staff at other Amica homes.
At the Friday rally, the Amica staff will be calling on their employer to stop exploiting the homes predominantly female workforce.
