UPDATE: 2026-03-05: On Thursday afternoon, March 5, Sienna Senior Living announced that it was backtracking on its plan to cut employee hours at Case Manor.
Long-term care workers at Case Manor in Bobcaygeon, ON, are protesting their employer’s decision to cut their hours without consultation.
The workers, represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 3204 warn that these cuts will affect the care they deliver to the residents at the facility.
Joan Kelly, President of CUPE 3204 explained that the cut in hours affected 75 full-time workers and represented a loss of 1,300 working hours.
“The quality of care is not gonna be there for the residents. You can’t cut 1,300 hours in a month and have the same care provided to the residents,” Kelly said in an interview with rabble.ca.
Concerns over minimum care hours
The province of Ontario mandates that each long-term care resident receives an average of four hours of one-on-one care per day.
Kelly worries that the cuts at Case Manor will mean that the facility will not be able to meet those minimum hours of care.
“So from what was said to me recently, was that our long-term care home was sitting at about 2.47 hours. And there was a town hall meeting with the employer and the resident families and they were told that it was at four hours if not above four hours. I have not seen four hours of care,” Kelly said.
These cuts come at a time when the Conservative provincial government under Doug Ford says that it is increasing funding for long-term care in Ontario. The government says it has increased its investment in long-term care by nearly $5 billion over the past five years.
Hours cut without consultation with the union
Most shocking to the union was the fact that Sienna Senior Living, the company that owns and operates Case Manor, did not cut these hours through negotiation, but did so unilaterally without input from CUPE.
“I feel we’ve always had a pretty good relationship,” said Kelly. “We were just informed that this was happening and. No room for discussion. No, let’s sit down and figure this out together. Let’s work together to minimize the impact on the members.”
CUPE Local 3204 has been holding rallies outside of Case Manor, as well as outside of the office of local Conservative MPP Laurie Scott.
“The rallies have been to put some pressure on them to bring them to the table and. We need to work together to figure this out. We have a collective agreement for a reason. We need to minimize the impact on the members and the residents,” Kelly said.
Kelly said that there has been little in terms of a response from either MPP Scott, or Sienna.
A follow-up rally was held in front of Sienna’s head offices in Markham, ON, on Thursday, March 5, the same day that CUPE 3204 was scheduled to make their case before the Labour Relations Board at an expedited hearing.
