Unionized Mariposa workers held an information picket in front of the seniors’ facility last month. (Keith Lacey photo)
More than 100 unionized workers at the Mariposa Gardens residential care facility in Osoyoos have voted overwhelmingly in favour of accepting the tentative agreement reached two weeks ago.
“The membership was very happy with the deal and they voted 94 per cent in favour of ratification,” said Tammy Garbutt, a residential care aide at Mariposa Gardens who is chair of the union’s bargaining committee.
The vast majority of employees at Mariposa Gardens are members of the Hospital Employees’ Union Mariposa Gardens and they include residential care aides, kitchen staff, maintenance and nursing staff, said Garbutt.
The union was determined to make gains in certain areas and they are very pleased with the provisions gained with the new contract, she said.
“I think the biggest thing was that Workers Compensation Board benefits will cover us for three years if we happen to get hurt on the job … that was a huge one for us,” said Garbutt. “There were also improvements to overtime language and we now have very clear overtime provisions and we also have improvements for … casual and part-time employees as they will now get included in overtime language.”
The wage increase over the course of the contract is 1.75 per cent in the first year and 1.50 in the second year or 3.25 per cent over the course of the deal, she said.
“We’re very happy with that,” she said. “It doesn’t bring us much closer to what Interior Health pays their front-line workers, but it did make us feel like we’re worth something for all the hard work we do.”
The best news of all is the residents at Mariposa Gardens won’t have their lives interrupted and will continue to receive top-notch quality care, said Garbutt.
“Any labour dispute would have negatively affected our residents no matter how much we tried to believe it wouldn’t,” she said. “We’re very happy none of our residents are going to be negatively affected by a work stoppage.”
A year ago, the union represented 120 workers at Mariposa Gardens, but those numbers have dropped significantly as several workers have left for other jobs, she said.
A mediator appointed by the provincial Labour Relations Board (LRB) was able to bring the two sides together on July 7 at an Osoyoos hotel and a deal was reached after several hours of negotiations.
The negotiating teams from the Health Employees Union Mariposa Gardens and from Baybridge/Baltic Properties, which owns and operates Mariposa Gardens, have recommended the tentative agreement, said Will McKay, the managing partner for Baybridge/Baltic properties.
“The mediator brought in was a very experienced labour negotiator and he was able to bring both parties to a meeting of the minds in Osoyoos,” he said.
The new two-year contract will be retroactive to Dec. 1, when the old three-year contract expired, said McKay.
McKay said he’s thrilled to have a new deal in place.
“Nobody really wants a labour disruption or labour dispute no matter what people might say,” said McKay. “This deal allows us to move forward to the job at hand.”
The provincial mediator played a huge role in bringing both sides together and hammering out a new deal in a matter of hours, said Garbutt.
“The mediator did a great job and made a huge difference in negotiations,” she said.
McKay agreed that wages and overtime were at the heart of the dispute and he’s pleased that the union’s negotiating team was satisfied with the offer presented during final negotiations.
“The union’s bargaining committee seems happy with our offer and we feel (the company) can live with this new deal and can now move forward,” he said.
The unionized employees had been working under the provisions of their old contract, which expired on the last day of November last fall.
McKay was always confident that a deal would be reached to avoid a labour dispute.
The workers gave the union’s negotiators 95-per-cent support for a strike mandate more than two months ago.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
