FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 23, 2021
BRIDGEWATER, NS – Members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada employed by Harbour House, a transition house that provides temporary housing for women and their children who are victim of abuse, reached impasse while trying to bargain a new collective agreement. The employee’s collective agreement expired on September 30, 2019 and they could begin strike action in the coming weeks.
Some of the issues preventing parties from reaching an agreement are:
- Harbour House management wants to force employees to be on call for a full week every month.
- Harbour House management expects employees to perform management duties when the Manager is off work.
- Harbour House management is seeking to take away an existing 2% economic increase that is paid on signing of the collective agreement.
Bailee Skinner, President of PSAC Local 80030 sums up the situation: ‘We were hired to empower women on the importance of consent and their right to choose. We weren’t hired to conduct management duties and therefore we shouldn’t be forced to do such tasks without our consent and agreement. It goes against the core values that we represent to the clients who seek help at Harbour House.’
Skinner states: “We work in an extremely high stress work environment. We do so out of personal commitment to protecting and supporting women and children fleeing violence. We need downtime to rest and recharge to continue to be a valuable asset to our clients”.
In the coming days, the union members will be escalating their actions in order to continue to garner community support and put pressure on the employer to remind them to practice what they preach.
