SUDBURY, ON, Oct. 16, 2019 /CNW/ - Home-care workers and patients, as well as community leaders and members of the public are expected to attend a town hall Thursday to discuss the impact of a 4½-month lockout of Sudbury home-care workers by a profit-driven private corporation – CarePartners.

WHO: Locked-out home-care workers, home-care patients, community leaders.

WHAT: Town hall meeting on impact of home-care workers' lockout.

WHEN: Thursday, October 17, 2019, 6:30-8:00 p.m.

WHERE: Steelworkers Hall, 66 Brady Street, Sudbury.

About 30 home-care workers, all but one of them women, were locked out of their jobs on May 31 by Kitchener-based CarePartners. CarePartners locked out its employees after they refused to accept the company's concession demands.

For several months the workers have been seeking to negotiate a collective agreement with modest improvements to their low wages and difficult working conditions, including issues such as workplace stress, sick leave and a shocking turnover rate.

"This is a mean-spirited lockout by a private company that is trying to bully a group of low-paid women to squeeze as much profit as it can from our publicly funded health-care system," said Mike Scott, a staff representative with the United Steelworkers (USW), which represents the locked-out Sudbury employees.

"We have been hearing concerns from the community about the impact of this lockout. We're encouraged to receive support from the public as well as community and political leaders and we will continue to build on that support to fight back against CarePartners and demand a fair deal for working people in our community," Scott said.

"We invite home-care patients, their families and the public to attend the town hall on Thursday to have their say and to learn more about this issue," he added.

Thursday's town hall will be held at the Steelworkers Hall, 66 Brady St., beginning at 6:30 p.m.

SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW)

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