Unionized Mariposa workers held an information picket in front of the seniors’ facility on Tuesday afternoon. (Keith Lacey photo)
Management with the company that owns and operates the Mariposa Gardens residential care facility in Osoyoos has asked the B.C. Labour Relations Board (LRB) to bring in a third party mediator in hopes of avoiding potential strike action by 120 unionized workers.
Will McKay, the managing partner for Baybridge/Baltic Properties, said the company applied to have a third party mediator brought in on Wednesday morning.
This comes after dozens of unionized employees who belong the Hospital Employees’ Union (HEU) Mariposa Gardens held an information picket Tuesday afternoon outside the residential care facility, located on Hwy. 97 across from the Buy-Low Foods grocery store.
Baybridge-Baltic owns and operates seven residential care facilities in B.C. including four in the Okanagan Valley, and is in the process of building another facility in West Kelonwa, said McKay.
“We had been contemplating bringing in a third party mediator for some time now,” said McKay. “We feel this is a way of moving negotiations forward … we’re confident a mediator will get appointed very quickly.”
The 120 unionized employees have been working without a contract since late November and union negotiators are upset with the lack of progress, said Tammy Garbutt, a residential care aide who is chair of the union’s local bargaining committee, a shop steward and health and safety committee member.
McKay agreed with Garbutt’s assessment that both sides remain far apart on the key issue of wages.
“I’m not going to negotiate through the media, but I think it would be a fair assessment to say that wages are at the heart of the matter … we’re still a fair ways apart,” he said.
Garbutt revealed Tuesday that the best offer provided by management has been 0.62 of one per cent per year over three years, “which is totally unacceptable” to the workers and negotiating team.
In the 20 years that Baybridge/Baltic has been in the residential care industry, this is the first time the company has ever been threatened with strike action by unionized workers, said McKay.
“To be perfectly frank, this is all new to us,” he said. “It’s a bit of uncharted territory for us as we’ve never had a work stoppage at any of our facilities in nearly 20 years.”
If the workers do hit the picket lines, there are members from the union who will have to cross the picket line and provide essential services as agreed to under provincial legislation, said McKay.
“Because this is health care we’re talking about and we’re dealing with a lot of frail elderly folks, they have to be looked after,” he said. “We will continue to provide a certain level of care … that meet the essential services agreement agreed to with the union.’
McKay said he’s confident a mediator will help lead both sides towards an agreement in the coming days.
“I think if we all push in the right direction we can hopefully get this thing resolved as quickly as possible,” he said.
No specific date has been set to begin strike action, but the 120 workers gave the union’s negotiating a 95 per cent strike mandate seven weeks ago, said Garbutt.
Workers at Mariposa Gardens are making $4 to $5 an hour less than workers employed by Interior Health who do the same kind of work, she said.
If strike action does begin within the next several days, Garbutt concurred that members of the union will remain on the job to assist management in providing essential services.
“We are going to make sure that the residents don’t suffer at all if we do go on strike,” she said. “We will have workers inside providing essential services and some of the managers are going to have to help provide those services.
‘We are going to be short staffed, but we have committed to ensuring none of the residents will be without the services they need.”
The union represents the vast majority of workers employed at Mariposa Gardens, including custodial, kitchen, nurses, maintenance and residential care aides.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
