Burin strike hurting disabled: NAPE

A long-running strike in southern Newfoundland is hurting people with disabilities who work as cleaners at a college campus, a union leader says.

Fifteen support workers, who are assigned to developmentally delayed adults who clean the College of the North Atlantic campus in Burin, have been on strike since November.

The workers, who are represented by the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees (NAPE), make little more than minimum wage, said union president Carol Furlong.

Furlong said the strike is also hurting the developmentally delayed clients, who themselves have been out of work since the strike started.

"We're seeing that some of them are actually losing weight. They're despondent, they're depressed and their reason for getting up in the morning and just being an integral part of society and having that inclusionism — it's all gone from them," Furlong told CBC News.

"It's not all about a paycheque for that group."

The striking workers are employed by the Burin-Marystown Community Training Employment Board.

Furlong said talks with the government, which provides funding for the program, are ongoing, and added she remains hopeful a deal can be reached.