- Maybe they want to starve us out.
That's the way it's looking right now.
They might be thinking that - oh
we're just going to bust the union.
You know what I mean?
I mean, we've been out for nine weeks,
but not once have they even attempted to talk through
the mediators, which has been requested twice.
It's the lowest paid in all of Ontario.
Like for example, we have several members,
they've been there 30 plus years, $14.71 an hour.
$14.71 an hour.
- From the outside looking in, it's difficult.
You have 65 - all women - workers.
The public assumes that these workers are very well paid,
well respected, well taken care of employees.
And that couldn't be further from the truth.
- 31 years and I make $14.71 an hour.
And I'm what they call the go-to person.
They'd take me back in a heartbeat because I'm a good deal.
I do lots for $14.71 an hour.
- The two clinics in Thunder Bay are essentially
almost exact operations.
At the Fort William Health Centre they're paid,
probably, in the neighbourhood of three
to four dollars more an hour
for workers who essentially do the same work.
The Port Arthur Health Centre
is financially lucrative and very viable.
So it was real disheartening.
They weren't arguing that they didn't
have the ability to pay.
That they were focused on keeping their overhead
and operating costs low,
which essentially means that they want to keep
the profit margin as high as possible.
- It's hard to negotiate a fair living wage.
No one expects to be rich,
but when you have doctors that are billing $1,698
every 60 minutes saying to my members,
you're not worth it and you get paid too much money.
And they're saying that to patients
while our members are out on a strike line.
- We're not asking for the world,
we're just asking for a fair living wage.
I said, we're not even asking for as much
as a lot of the other clinics pay.
But these women are expected to do all kinds of procedures
that most people would expect a nurse
or at least a nurse practitioner,
somebody with higher training to do.
- These are the facts, 39 of your 65 women
are casual, they will not hire part time,
they will not post permanent postings.
- There's a number of women that have been working
for a number of years,
anywhere from 6 to 15 years, as casuals.
To me, that's not casual anymore,
you're showing a commitment to your workplace.
Why isn't the workplace showing a commitment to you?
- But at least I have benefits,
but the other girls don't even have that.
They can't even get a credit card.
They can't get mortgages.
You know, and that's not fair in this day and age.
- If we don't keep the union in place in this facility,
no one will ever get ahead there.
They will always just pay minimum wage.
And I mean, some days you don't ... it's hard.
But you do it.
- [Interviewer] And financially?
- It's hard emotionally and financially.
- It's about an employer who really has
the ability to pay and offer these workers a fair wage
and a fair tentative settlement,
just using their position to only think about themselves,
and even disregard the care for their patients.
At this point we've been out for over two months now.
The employer has outright refused to sit down with us.
My fear is that the employer has one goal here
at the end of the day,
and that's to try and break the union,
to break these women's will,
to have them come back essentially un-unionized
and under whatever conditions the management
would want them to.
- We have to win.
Because I mean, you can't go back.
That's just like going back to the stone ages, right?
I mean, this is supposed to be a progressive society.