Members in Action: Flexibility when you march

We all like to lend a hand. Helping our friends, families, and coworkers feels good. But when you’re asked to do someone else’s job because management refuses to hire the staff who are supposed to do the work? Yeah, that’s not a good feeling. 

AUPE members at Southland Meadows retirement residence in Medicine Hat experienced this exact problem. The centre is so underfunded and understaffed that health care aides were forced to do kitchen duties as well as their own. 

“I don’t know if you’ve been to a seniors care centre lately, but all the staff are overworked,” says AUPE Vice-President Curtis Jackson, who represents the south region of the province. “There is no way health care aides have enough time to properly care for residents and take care of kitchen duties. There’s just no way.” 

Members at Southland Meadows say they were expected to serve all the meals, pour all the drinks, clear tables, do dishes, and somehow balance that with the care they were actually hired to provide. 

Can you imagine being a senior in care and told there isn’t time to go to the washroom or get changed because the staff who should be helping you are forced to wash all the dishes in time for dinner? 

There was no way to keep up while giving residents the care they deserve, so the members decided to act. 

They met with AUPE’s organizing department to come up with a plan. The solution they landed on is called a March on the Boss. 

“A March on the Boss is a great way to pressure your employer to do the right thing,” says Jackson. “If planned right, you can really shock them into taking your concerns seriously. The key is to demand they fix the problem as a group, instead of meeting with management individually.” 

But that’s not how the Southland Meadows March on the Boss went. The members had to be flexible when things did not go as planned. 

First, they all got together to ensure everyone was on-board and ready. They chose a day when they knew the big boss would be visiting their Medicine Hat location. 

15 members marched up to the boss’s office. The plan was for everyone to share their stories and advocate for the changes that would help staff and residents alike. Their boss was braver than most, however, even standoffish. In the end, the boss refused to meet with all of them at the same time. 

Instead, only one member was allowed into the boss’s office to speak with them. Because the members had planned what they were doing ahead of time, they chose the member who was already prepared to be their main spokesperson. 

The rest of the members waited outside the frosted glass windows, eager to hear the result. After 40 minutes alone, the lone member had gotten the point across.  

The problem is not fixed completely, but management did make changes after this March on the Boss. The health care aides now have help serving food and washing dishes. Bottom line? The action was a success. Now the members are working to keep up the pressure and force management to make long-term solutions. 

“Many voices are much more powerful than one,” says Jackson. “In this case, the members succeeded because they had done lots of planning ahead of time and had clear demands. I asked them what advice they would give other members, and they said: ‘do whatever you need to do to make your voice heard.’”