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Nursing home workers at Tufford Nursing Home in St. Catherines, Ontario, held an information picketline recently with a bit of a twist.

The “My Undies…My Choice” demo saw workers gather in front of the nursing home to protest stalled contract talks, but also to bring attention to the nursing home’s dress code which reads like something out of the 1940s. Among other things, the dress code at Tufford Nursing Home states that employees must wear white underwear.

“Hard as it may seem to imagine that an employer in this day and age would actually think they had the right to tell people what colour underwear they can wear, this gives people a good idea of the kind of employer we have been dealing with,” says LeeAnne Losier, president of Local 1263.

The right to wear coloured uniforms is just one of many outstanding issues in this dispute.

The 70 Tufford employees are members of Local 1263 that represents over 1,000 nursing home workers in Niagara Region. They have been trying to negotiate a settlement - and avoid arbitration - since July 1997.