Striking workers to rally outside state of the province address by Premier Houston

HALIFAX, NS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Striking long term care workers from across Nova Scotia will be collapsing picket lines and converging outside of Premier Tim Houston’s state of the province address today. All Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) members in Nova Scotia, community and political allies, as well as labour leaders will be speaking to the ‘state of long term care’ at a rally this afternoon.

"It’s time our elected representatives listened to their constituents. We’re not just workers, we’re voters too. Tim Houston’s government has responsibility to the thousands of long term care workers who have been on the picket line for 43 days now,” said Christa Sweeney, CUPE Long Term and Community Care Committee Chair.

“We know MLAs have closed offices and we know they’re not taking calls from our members,” said Mark Hancock, CUPE National President. If Premier Houston is going to be speaking to the state of the province, he can’t ignore the state of long term care. He cannot ignore workers.”

Delegates to the CUPE Nova Scotia annual convention will march from the convention location at The Westin Nova Scotian (1181 Hollis St, Halifax) to the Halifax Convention Centre.

The impasse in negotiations continues, as no deal was reached when parties last met on May 7^th. 35 CUPE locals representing long term care workers have taken job action, with picket lines all across Nova Scotia.

There are 3,500 workers on strike demanding the government negotiate a decent deal that improves wages and working conditions. The majority of workers in this sector are earning well below the living wage for Nova Scotia.

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