Salvation Army workers at Ottawa shelter vote in favour of strike

The union representing staff at the Salvation Army homeless shelter in Ottawa's ByWard Market have voted in favour of a strike.

About 60 workers at the Booth Centre on George Street represented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), voted "overwhelmingly" in favour of the job action, clearing the way for a possible strike if negotiations break down.

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Members of PSAC Local 73100 provide maintenance, administration, food access and frontline support services for Ottawa's homeless population at the centre.

"These workers play a vital role in addressing issues of homelessness and addiction in our community." said Ruth Lau MacDonald, PSAC's regional executive vice-president for the national capital region in a news release on Monday.

"They deserve a living wage that aligns with what others in the social services sector are making."

The Booth Centre provides a variety of services for those experiencing homelessness, addictions or mental health issues, including shelter space, long-term housing and addictions support.

"The Salvation Army Ottawa Booth Centre has been in negotiations with the bargaining unit representing workers for the past several months," the charity said in a statement.

"Despite our best efforts to provide what we feel are fair proposals, we have been unable to reach an agreement. The Salvation Army remains committed to the negotiating process and is hopeful that we will come to a resolution soon."

The union says its workers face "significant" wage disparities compared to others in the same sector, making less than the Ottawa living wage and 23 per cent less than other jobs in the same sector.

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"The members were offered 50 cents an hour as a pay increase which is simply not enough to meet the cost of living. Our members are making wages well below the cost of living in the National Capital Region," MacDonald said. 

PSAC says wages for frontline workers at the Shepherds of Good Hope were 27 per cent higher, while the gap for housekeepers was 18 per cent.

"This is thankless work, this is incredibly important work, and it's shocking to find ourselves in a position where we have to draw parallels between the services that they offer and the services they may have to access should they continue to earn wages at such a low rate."

MacDonald added that taking job action is always a last resort, but said the strong strike mandate underscores the frustration workers are feeling during this round of bargaining.

"The people doing this important work in our community should make enough to cover the cost of living in this city." MacDonald said.

The union says there are health and safety concerns at the site as well, including issues with pest control and a training for dangerous incidents. 

"They had three successive traumatic incidents in the workplace and their requests for drills around safety incidence, where say a client comes in with a weapon, they didn't feel were being taken seriously," she said. "To the workers, I think the situation is dire and the employer's approach to this doesn't seem to match what I think any person would consider reasonable." 

It's unclear exactly what a strike would mean for the Booth Centre's current services and programs, but a spokesperson for the Salvation Army says it is "prepared and will continue to provide its vital social services programs."

Workers at the Booth Centre have gone on strike before.

Employees walked off the job for roughly ten weeks in 2012 before coming to an agreement with the Salvation Army.

In that case, the charity says the centre continued to deliver all services and programs without disruption over the course of the job action.

The latest strike vote opens to door for workers at the Booth Centre to walk off the job some time in the next two months.

The hope is that if they do, services at the shelter will continue moving along with minimal impact with demand higher than ever.

"Our emergency system is in a crisis. We have the highest shelter use that we've ever seen. 2023 saw the highest shelter use in Ottawa ever," said Meg McCallum, the interim Executive-Director at the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa.

"It's never a good time to be homeless, but winter in Ottawa is brutal and we know that we see higher numbers in the shelters over the winter months."

Ottawa's city council declared a housing and homelessness emergency in Ottawa in 2020. The city estimates there were 280 people living unsheltered in the city as 2023.