An Important Message from NSGEU President Jason MacLean

Good afternoon,

Home support services in Nova Scotia are needed today more than ever: there are more people who find themselves in need of the valuable service you provide. Because of this, we are seeing more and more private, for-profit agencies emerging throughout the province. In order to attract workers, they generally offer similar wages to those that have been negotiated in unionized workplaces, such as yours, but they aren’t offering pensions and other important benefits.

As a result, they are creating a divide in the home support industry and making it harder for us to negotiate better deals with the employers and, ultimately, the government, which funds home support services.

So, we are taking action. The NSGEU is actively seeking to unionize these private, for-profit home support agencies. But we need your help.

As you know all too well, home support workers don’t have a standard workplace, which makes it hard for us to reach potential new members. So, if you know of any non-unionized home support workers in your community who are interested in unionizing, please let them know they can contact us!

They should contact Lori Smith, Organizing Officer, at 902-456-6531 or lsmith@nsgeu.ca to find out next steps. Their inquiries will be treated with the strictest confidence.

In solidarity,

Jason MacLean

President, NSGEU