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Unifor statement on Personal Support Worker Day, May 19, 2026
On May 19, Unifor proudly honours the dedication, skill, and compassion of Personal Support Workers (PSWs) across Canada.
PSWs provide hands-on, front line care every single day, supporting seniors, people with disabilities, and patients in long-term care, hospitals and social services, home care, and community settings.
They are there in life’s most vulnerable moments, delivering care, dignity, comfort, and human connection.
While PSWs continue to give everything to their work, the system continues to fall short of giving them what they deserve. For too long, PSWs have faced chronic understaffing, low wages, and precarious, part-time work. These conditions undermine both the quality of care and the well-being of workers. These challenges are not new, and they are urgent and fixable.
This year, as we mark PSW Day, Unifor is calling for real action to make care in Canada stronger, more compassionate, and truly public—by investing in workers, strengthening staffing, and building a system that delivers quality care for everyone, in every community.
That starts with strengthening our public health care system and stopping privatization. Public dollars must go to public care, not for-profit clinics, staffing agencies, or corporations that put profits over patients. We must reinvest in public hospitals and social services, fully utilize existing capacity, and transition toward public and non-profit delivery models.
It also means fixing the staffing crisis by improving retention and compensation. PSWs need stable, full-time jobs with benefits, fair wages, and safe working conditions. Governments must commit to wage parity across sectors, invest in recruitment and retention, and take action to reduce reliance on costly private staffing agencies that drain resources from frontline care.
For PSWs specifically, we must ensure fairness, respect, and a voice on the job. That includes:
- Protecting workers from unfair, punitive oversight structures,
- Ensuring experienced PSWs can remain in the system, and
- Creating pathways that value their skills and experience, not push them out of the profession.
And we must finally deliver on what workers and residents have long demanded: a fully implemented, enforceable minimum of four hours of direct care per resident, per day in long-term care, measured at each facility, with real accountability.
Better working conditions for PSWs mean better care for everyone.
PSWs have carried this system through crisis after crisis, from chronic underfunding to a global pandemic. They have shown resilience, professionalism, and compassion in the face of immense pressure.
On PSW Day, we say thank you to every Personal Support Worker for your care, your strength, and your unwavering dedication.
And we renew our commitment to fight alongside you for better jobs, better care, and a public health care system that truly works for everyone.
