Workers at Our Place Society have voted to unionize and join the BC General Employees’ Union.
Our Place is a Victoria non-profit providing housing and other services for the homeless and vulnerable population. According to BCGEU, there are 260 workers newly signed up to the union across 10 sites around Greater Victoria, and BCGEU says an “overwhelming majority” voted in favour of the union.
“Every worker deserves the protection and power of a union, and it is really gratifying to see so many workers wanting to organize their worksites,” said Stephanie Smith, president of the union in a news release. “The BCGEU is one of the fastest-growing unions in B.C. and it is an absolute honour every time a group of workers votes to join our union.”
Julian Daly, CEO of Our Place Society, says he looks forward to working with the union going forward.
“I was glad to see that democracy was alive and well, at Our Place and that our colleagues had a chance to make that choice and they’ve now chosen to be unionized,” Daly said in an interview with CHEK News. “I respect that choice and I will look forward to working with the union, as partners to try and continue to make Our Place a really great place to work.”
In a news release, the union says the workers are calling for improvements to health and safety. Last September drop-in services were briefly suspended after a staff member was allegedly assaulted, and the news release says working conditions have not improved since the incident.
However, Daly says following the incident Our Place has hired security for the drop-in services to ensure the safety of staff and clients.
“We shut our drop-in for one day, in the interest of safety, and to send a signal to clients and the people that come to our centres that violence will not be tolerated. It was also a signal our staff that we took their safety incredibly seriously,” Daly said.
“And we also used that day to regroup a bit, and to put in new measures, including bringing in, at a considerable cost, a security guard to be at our front gate and that did make people feel an awful lot safer.”
A worker, who the news release does not name, says there have been isssues with staffing shortages since before the pandemic, and the worker feels working conditions and client care have deteriorated to dangerous levels.
Daly says while they are facing staffing issues, he does not believe there has ever been a dangerous shortage of staff.
“We’ve had this staffing challenges everyone has had in Victoria,” Daly said. “We’ve never had to shut any of our services throughout COVID, throughout the last two years, while we’ve been really challenged to get enough staff, we have always got just enough.”
Daly says there is not yet a timeline for when bargaining will begin, and the organization is waiting to hear from the union to begin the process.
Laura Brougham
