Red Cross home care worker strike gets underway

Personal support workers with Red Cross Care Partners walked the picket lines in Thunder Bay on Wednesday as part of strike action taking placeacross the province.

Home care workers said their woes are only a symptom ofa failing home care system in Ontario.

A handful of protestersshowed up in the morning outside the Northwest Community Care Access Centre on Alloy Drive, despite temperatures that hovered around 20 C.

The picketers wantto draw attention to what they say are tough working conditions and poverty-level wages.

Bill Joblin of the Service Employees International Union, whichrepresents the Red Cross Care Partners workers,saidthe personal support workers (PSWs) are also working without benefits and pensions.

Joblin said that,with the aging population, home care is becoming a bigger issue and it's time PSWs are paid accordingly.

The picketers were joined by supporters from the hospital and a long-term care home.

Meanwhile, the Northwest Community Care Access Centre said it is ready to help home care clients affected by thelabour dispute.

More than 20 home care workers are off the job.

As a result,about 28 clients could be affected, said TuijaPuiras, head of theCCAC.

"We are really concentrating at the moment on making sure that those clients ... will continue to receive services and stay safely in the community in their own homes, she said.

So far, Red Cross Care Partners has not asked the CCAC to provide home care workers from other agencies, she said, adding the CCAC is ready to help whenever required.

"[These clients]certainly need the supports ... to be able to receive the grooming and bathing [care] and being fed and hydrated and so on."

A Red Cross spokesperson said the agency is contacting its clients directly and has a contingency plan to ensure they get the care they need during the strike.

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