St. Joe’s poised for lockout

Two hundred St. Joeseph’s home care workers in Hamilton could face a lockout at midnight Wednesday if they don’t accept a pay cut.

Last ditch negotiations are continuing through the day at a hotel in Hamilton.

The management of St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton is asking its frontline home care workers to accept a cut of $3 an hour.

That’s a 15% drop in the average home care worker’s salary of less than $20,000 a year.

The workers say St. Joe’s is demanding the cuts because they expect bidding in the home care sector to resume later this spring.