A break in talks to resolve a long-running strike involving community support workers in southern Newfoundland has astounded families of developmentally delayed adults who depend on their care.

“Just devastated,” said Amelia Cull, describing her reaction to news that negotiations had hit an impasse to resolve a strike with workers of the Burin-Marystown Community Training and Employment Board.

“I could’ve chewed them to pieces, I was that evil,” said Cull.

Cull’s daughter, Judy, 41, has worked for 20 years at the primary school in Marystown, but — because she is developmentally delayed — has needed a support worker by her side.

With that person on strike, Judy Cull is at home and confused.

“It really helps Judy because it gives her self-esteem,” her mother told CBC News. “And right now, she’s not doing nothing. And she’s just wondering when she can go back to work.”

A conciliator working with the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees and the Newfoundland and Labrador government could not mediate an agreement over wages. The provincial government only recently became involved in the dispute, having argued it is not the employer.

The support workers in the Burin area make a little more than minimum wage.

NAPE president Carol Furlong said the two sides are apart by a raise of only 40 cents per hour for each of four years of a proposed contract.

“We have asked the question repeatedly in bargaining — what is this about?” she said Wednesday.

“We know it’s not about money. It can’t be about money. We have never gotten a valid answer.”

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