Long-term care workers in Dartmouth as well as Hammonds Plains have voted 99 per cent in favour of strike action.

According to a news release by CUPE, employees at Admiral and Whitehills Long Term Care Centres say wages, recruitment and retention, overtime and unsafe working conditions are key issues.

“The reality is that the rising cost of living and constant stress of working short is forcing people to leave long term care for other sectors and professions,” says CUPE 1259 President Dawn Vardy.

“Most days, we’re assigned a unit to take care of, and we do it alone. That means we’re taking care of 15 residents, handling all their needs, alone. That’s not sustainable, and it’s certainly not beneficial to the residents who call our facilities their home.”

The union says one of the main issues is poor retention of workers, despite programs to encourage people to work in the sector, low wages and understaffing causes employees to leave.

Long term care workers in Nova Scotia are some of the lowest paid in Atlantic Canada, according to CUPE, with some who make under $20 an hour.

“It doesn’t matter how many job fairs or signing bonuses people are offered, if the job itself doesn’t pay enough for them to live. I have coworkers who are homeless, who live in their cars or sleep on friends’ couches, because they aren’t being paid enough to afford rent,” said Vardy.

“That’s why people keep leaving, or don’t come into long term care in the first place. And I don’t blame them. Loving what you do, and caring as much as we do, doesn’t put food on the table.”