It can be lonely out on the picket line, and postal workers in Windsor want striking public health nurses to know they are not alone.
That is why lunch for the 86 nurses at the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is on the Canadian Union of Postal Workers Thursday.
President of the Windsor local Phil Lyons told BlackburnNews.com it is important that union members from different organizations have each others' back. He hoped the lunch between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. would raise awareness in the community and result in public pressure on the health unit to return to bargaining.
"They slapped them in the face yesterday by coming in for an hour and leaving," said Lyons about Wednesday's failed round of negotiations to end the strike which started March 8. "Obviously they're not serious about trying to settle this yet."
Wages are the big sticking point. The Ontario Nurses Association is demanding parity with male-dominated professions like firefighters and police officers. The health unit said it could not afford to increase their pay.
"They're not that far apart," opined Lyons. "It shouldn't have gone this far."
The postal workers know first-hand how difficult it can be to be off the job having experienced rotating strikes last fall.
