Since Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union (MGEU) members at the Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation (NCN) personal care home went out on strike Nov. 28, demanding wage parity with other personal care home workers in the province, union president Michelle Gawronsky says she’s spoken to plenty of sympathetic listeners.
Unfortunately, none of them feel the situation falls under their jurisdiction.
“I’m trying to talk to as many chiefs or anyone that I can get the ear of, anybody from the federal government,” Gawronsky said Dec. 7, the morning of the 10th day of the strike. “Short of calling the janitor over at the Parliament buildings in Ottawa, I’m not sure who else I can call to say how unfair this is and someone needs to be paying attention. Everyone I speak to is sympathetic and ‘Yes, they understand,’ and ‘Oh my, they absolutely should be making the same wages as everyone else,’ and ‘Yes, we value them as employees and the care that’s provided is excellent,’ and yet they keep passing the buck. ‘It’s not our responsibility, it’s someone else’s responsibility,’ so I guess our question to the federal government, to the band, to everybody is where does the buck stop and who is responsible for ensuring that there’s fairness and equity?”
The workers are on the picket line for four hours a day while still providing essential services for the personal care home residents.
“They want to make sure their elders are cared for as much as possible during this time,” Gawronsky says. “They realize this isn’t the elders’ fault that this is happening.”
At the same time, the workers are determined to get the money that they feel they deserve.
“They’re out walking a picket line rather than being at home Christmas baking or doing their Christmas shopping or getting whatever they want to do done,” said Gawronsky. “This was a very serious consideration they had to give and they talked about it as a whole group and it was unanimous that they needed to stand together. There was no question about that. I take great pride in the fact that they have the strength that they do.”
Getting equal wages to those of personal care home workers elsewhere in the province is key to the sustainability of the NCN personal care home, Gawronsky says, as some of the MGEU members there could be retiring over the next few years and it will be difficult to attract replacements if the wages are not comparable.
“If the young folks aren’t going to be recognized for the education and the service they’re going to be providing and the care they’re going to provide to the elders, what is keeping them there?” Gawronsky says. “They could go to Thompson. There’s a shortage of staff in Thompson.”
There have been minimal talks between the two sides over the past month.
NCN Chief Marcel Moody said in a Nov. 9 news release that he has been in contact with Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) regarding the funding crisis that has led to the strike and that those efforts as well as attempts to convince the provincial government to help provide adequate funding have been unsuccessful. Moody said he agreed with the union that its members should get paid the same as other personal care home workers but that the NCN personal care home doesn’t have the funding it needs to do so.
* This article has been changed from the original to correct a typo in MGEU president Michelle Gawronsky's name and to reflect the fact that workers are on the picket line four hours per day, not four hours on weekday and four to eight on weekends, and that there have been some talks between the workers and the employer over the past month.
