About 255 Windsor community health workers are part of a province-wide fight for a “fair wage.”

The employees were picketing outside the Communty Care Access Centre offices at 5415 Tecumseh Rd E. in Windsor on Friday. 

The Ontario Nurses' Association says almost 3,000 community health workers are on strike across the province.

The union says it has been seeking wage increases equal to the percentages given to the other 57,000 members of ONA in the hospital, public health and long-term care sectors.

It says CCAC members had a two-year wage freeze in their last contract, which expired March 31, 2014.

Windsor Regional Hospital CEO David Musyj says "the strike is a concern, the impact is substantial."

He says every day 50 patients leave the Windsor hospital needing help at home from CCAC.

The union says nine of 10 bargaining units of workers with the province's Community Care Access Centres have voted to strike.

The workers include registered nurses, nurse practitioners, registered practical nurses, social workers, physiotherapists, occupational and speech therapists, among other health professionals.

The strike affects most areas of Ontario, except for the Ottawa area, central Toronto and communities just west of Toronto, including Mississauga and Halton Region.

However, the union says workers in the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant unit have ratified a new agreement.

With files from The Canadian Press.