Frontline staff at Wakenagun Youth Healing Lodge voted last week to join the United Steelworkers union (USW), a move that adds 30 new members to the union and strengthens worker representation in Northern Ontario’s Indigenous-led community care sector.
The lodge in Timmins provides residential and cultural healing programs for Indigenous youth. Workers there offer support and programming, often under conditions that union officials say lack formal recognition or protection.
Union support sought
Darlene Jalbert, USW District 6 Organizing Co-ordinator, talked about the importance of the workers’ roles.
“These workers are the backbone of a healing lodge that supports young people through some of the hardest moments of their lives,” Jalbert said. “Their work deserves respect, stability and the collective power of a union behind them. That’s what they’ve now won.”
Kevon Stewart, USW District 6 Director, highlighted the benefit to the wider community.
“This is a win not just for these workers, but for the community they serve,” Stewart said. “By joining the USW, they’re building stronger, safer and more sustainable conditions – for themselves and the youth they support.”
The successful unionization vote marks a continuing trend of care and social service workers organizing across Northern Ontario, according to the USW.
Next steps
The newly unionized workers will now elect a bargaining committee. With the union’s support, they will begin preparations to negotiate their first collective agreement with the employer.
The United Steelworkers union represents 225,000 members across Canada in nearly every economic sector. It is North America’s largest private-sector union, with 850,000 members in Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean.
