About 100 members of UFCW Local 832 who work at Vista Park Lodge in Manitoba, Canada, recently ratified a new contract that improves scheduling and wages.
Vista Park Lodge is one of 125 senior care centers owned and operated by Extendicare, Canada’s largest provider of long-term care, and these workers are employed as health care aides; activity, rehab and dietary aides; and in housekeeping, kitchen and laundry services.
Highlights of the two-year contract include:
- A commitment to update master schedules when they change.
- Wage increases of 2.5 percent for all with an added increment for health care aides to put them on equal footing with what was negotiated for other health care aides. Activity and rehab aides were also moved into this wage category.
- Increases to evening, night, and weekend premiums.
- Retroactive pay from April 1, 2024, and a lump sum payment of 1.75 percent of all hours paid in 2023 for full-time workers, and 1.5 percent for part-time workers.
“This was an incredibly tough round of bargaining,” said UFCW Local 832 Union Negotiator Joe Carreiro. “This group works very hard to support aging Manitobans and our committee fought to ensure they had parity with health care aides in other locations.”