Lindsay, Ont. – March 21, 2018 – Workers at the Country Estates Retirement Home in Lindsay, Ontario are the newest members of UFCW Canada Local 175 after recently voting to join the union.

In January of this year, an employee at the Country Estates Retirement Home reached out to UFCW 175 organizers to help bring the benefits of a union to their workplace.

At a subsequent meeting, 66 percent of the retirement home staff – and everyone who attended the meeting – signed a union card. The next day, organizers put in an application for certification to the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB).

“This was a difficult work environment for a number of employees,” says UFCW 175 Organizer Ricardo Bocanegra. “Workers were concerned for their job security because of favouritism. They also had a number of other pressing concerns that brought them to the union,” he adds.

Employees voted overwhelmingly to join the union, but the employer delayed the certification process by segregating certain votes. Legal representatives for the retirement home reached out to the union in the weeks that followed to release the segregated ballots.

Now that UFCW Canada Local 175 has been certified as the official bargaining agent for the Country Estates Retirement Home employees, the members can now move toward bargaining their first collective agreement.