Once again, the National President of Unifor is calling on the province to take over responsibility of The Village at St Clair.
Jerry Dias has sent an open letter to the premier about the long-term care home on Talbot Road in Windsor, asking the province use whatever resources available including the Armed Forces and Red Cross.
Unifor Spokesperson, Katha Fortier tells AM800 News, the home was short staffed before the pandemic so this is just making it worse.
"The fact of the matter is, they can't safely operate," she says, "Our members that work there are calling their local union, they're frustrated, they're in tears, they're just quite devastated because quite frankly, they can't perform the care that they need on these residents."
Even though the employer has provided some additional staff from an agency, Fortier says that also comes with its challenges.
"They're not familiar with the workplace, not familiar with the residents and so you have a point where personal support workers and frontline care givers are leaving in tears," she says. "They're crying in their cars and then they're watching residents that they love die without their families there."
Fortier says they're not looking to lay blame at this point, and because the field hospital isn't open to accept residents, they just need help.
"You need relief in the home, we need people to come in and work and help to care for these residents. There's just not enough bodies right now," she adds. "When you've got 50 people out with COVID, you can't operate a nursing home, it's not even feasible."
An outbreak was declared at the home on December 10 and according to Unifor, as of Tuesday, 97 residents and 50 staff have now tested positive for COVID-19.