Nursing home workers protest outside the Turnbull Home in Saint John. (Photo Credit: Tamara Steele)
Both the Liberals and the Greens in New Brunswick are calling on Premiere Blaine Higgs to solve the nursing home dispute through binding arbitration.
The process would mean an impartial arbitrator will look at the working conditions and wages of nursing home workers, and make a final and fair decision.
Green leader David Coon says binding arbitration is a win win for everyone.
“Our Industrial Relations Act provides a way out of the current impasse through binding arbitration. Everybody will win. Nursing home residents win. Nursing home workers win. And the government wins,” said Coon in a release.
He says it will get the dispute out of the court, end the impasse at the negotiating table, and avoid a strike.
Denis Landry, interim leader of the Liberals says we are fast approaching a crisis, and the situation needs to be solved. He says the Liberal Opposition supports nursing home workers as well as New Brunswick Seniors.
MLA Megan Mitton for Memramcook-Tantramar said in a release that “at this point, binding arbitration is the fairest way to proceed. It means that an impartial arbitrator, will be able to look at the wages and working conditions to allow the best outcome for all involved.”
According to the Green Party, nursing home workers are overwhelmingly women, who earn on average 25 thousand to 30 thousand a year.
