Andy Crawford (86) and Bill Penny (89) took part in an hour-long stopwork picket with carers, support staff, and union representatives.
Service and Food Workers' Union organiser Ann Galloway said workers were not happy with a 1.7% offer, from next April, conditional on the home having 55 residents.
At present, the home had about 40 residents, and the resident number clause was unusual, she said.
Waving a union flag, Mr Crawford told the Otago Daily Times he supported the workers' claims.
Staff went the extra mile to help residents, and no task was too much trouble, he said.
Ideally, he would like to live at home, but the care offered by the workers made the rest-home an enjoyable place to live, he said.
"These girls [workers] really are lovely people."
Mr Penny agreed, saying, "They are not getting paid enough."
Woodhaugh Rest Home general manager Colleen Stairmand declined to comment, saying only she was disappointed the union had adopted a "conflict-driven" approach to negotiation.
