The passionate and dedicated workers at St. Joseph Hospice have been without a contract for nearly two years.It’s created a toxic work environment and workers are leaving in droves — hurting those in the hospice’s care, and the entire community.Add your name here, and we’ll email on your behalf the urgent message below to the hospice’s board of directors.
Respect the workers at St. Joseph Hospice
Dear Members of the Board at St. Joseph Hospice, I submit this letter to you as a concerned community member in support of the OPSEU/SEFPO workers at St. Josephs Hospice. These workers have been without a contract for over 646 days and leadership at your facility is refusing to speak with workers to address the very real issues that are impacting the work that they do. This is not right. Staff at St. Joseph Hospice have a sincere passion for the jobs that they do. They work every day to uphold the principles of hospice in the day-to-day interactions with residents and their families. The work that is done at the bedside is done with compassion, care and respect and it has played a significant role in the hospice’s reputation as an important part of our community here in Sarnia. Despite their commitment to this important work, staff are leaving St. Joseph’s Hospice at an alarming rate, 56 have left since February 2021. This has meant losing long-standing and dedicated staff that have been instrumental in building this hospice up to what it is today. It has become increasingly difficult to recruit and ultimately retain workers due to the challenging working conditions, low wages, and lack of respect by your management for the people that keep this institution running. This lack of respect has led to more than a dozen grievances being filed due to contract violations by current leadership. And instead of taking accountability for the bad actions that led to these grievances being filed, leadership is wasting money on legal fees to fight workers. These are funds that should be put into the operation of the hospice, where we know as community members and staff that they belong. This toxic work environment and in turn the culture that has been created has taken a toll on both past and present working staff. The current employer continues to undermine the work the staff at St. Joseph’s Hospice do, and their actions are negatively affecting residents, staff, programing, community volunteers and the relationships with workers associated with hospice. Working in this environment has caused significant psychological strain for employees and has resulted in high levels of stress and burnout. The staff at St. Joseph Hospice deserve better, and it is time for you, as members of the hospice board, to step in to ensure management comes to the table with a deal that reflects the value of your frontline hospice workers who allow you to offer exemplary end of life care to our Sarnia community. Sincerely, [your name will appear here]A concerned community member
