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July 15, 2013 - No. 85
Public Right Yes! Monopoly Right
No!
Redford Government Assaults
Health Care Workers' Rights Again
Public
Right
Yes!
Monopoly
Right
No!
• Redford Government Assaults Health Care
Workers' Rights Again
• Home Care Workers and Recipients Say No to
Private Profiteers - Rita Soto
• The Contribution Home Care Workers and
Patients Make - Peggy Morton
Defend the Rights of
Workers! Uphold the Rights of All!
• Correctional Officers Fired in a Flagrant
Abuse of Governmental Power
- Peggy Askin
Stop Paying the Rich!
• Energy Monopoly Profits in 2012 Second Only
to Banks
Public Right Yes! Monopoly Right No!
Redford Government Assaults
Health Care Workers' Rights Again
Hours after the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees
(AUPE) served strike notice on the private U.S. monopoly Extendicare
Canada Inc. on July 5, Human Services Minister Dave Hancock established
a Disputes Inquiry Board (DIB). It is illegal to take strike action
while a DIB is in place. There is no similar
ban on the employer using this window to recruit scab replacement
workers or take other actions in preparation for a strike. Once a DIB
has been appointed, both parties are required to participate in
mediation.
The authority to use this power is entirely arbitrary
and at the discretion of the minister. The minister can also
arbitrarily extend the period in which a strike or lockout is illegal.
It can be used to delay a strike if this is in the employer's interest.
It can buy time for an employer to advertise for scab labour. If an
agreement is not reached during the 45 days, the DIB recommends a
settlement and can require a vote on its recommendation.
Extendicare has refused to agree to wages on par with
workers in public long-term care facilities employed by Alberta Health
Services. It has also demanded concessions from the workers including
cuts to sick time and statutory holidays, refused to bargain in good
faith and cancelled mediation. The workers
overwhelmingly said No! to this attack on their rights. One thousand
two hundred workers including licensed practical nurses, nursing aides
and support staff work at the eight Extendicare facilities across
Alberta where strike votes were held. Workers voted resoundingly for
strike action, with votes ranging from 93
to 100 per cent in favour.
"I am deeply concerned that a labour disruption would
affect health and safety of the residents of these facilities. Their
well-being is our primary concern," Minister Hancock said. To divert
attention from the reality that the private interests of Extendicare
are found right inside the government, Hancock feigns
concern for the fate of the approximately 130 residents saying, "This
process gives the parties an additional opportunity to clarify the
issues and find an agreeable solution before the dispute escalates,
while still maintaining the necessary services for residents."
This claim of concern for the residents rings hollow in
the face of the government's plan to eliminate 1,659 long term care
beds over the next five years. A government concerned with the
well-being of seniors needing care would be building public facilities,
not closing them. It would stop handing over public
funds and facilities to private interests interested only in growing
their capital. It would at least require the owners to pay their staff
according to the industry standard or lose their funding. It would stop
paying the rich at the expense of the residents and the workers who
care for them.
Extendicare is one of North America's largest long-term
care providers with 243 senior care centres and capacity for
approximately 26,700 residents. It is the second largest monopoly
operating nursing home beds in Canada, with 85 senior care facilities
in Canada. It is also a major provider of home care in Canada
through its ParaMed Home Health Care division. As well, it contracts
out to other private companies for purchasing, management and
consulting services. In 2012, Extendicare had total revenue of $2.04
billion and net operating income or declared profit of $257 million.
Extendicare reports that its profits increased
in Canada in 2012 but decreased in the U.S. as the Medicare rate was
cut.
 This monopoly was permitted
to charge seniors an additional five per cent in 2012, and is trying to
wrest concessions from its workers to further line its pockets. Opening
its secret financial accounts to the public would provide valuable
information so that the workers and their allies could deepen the
discussion
on the negative consequences of care for seniors as a source of private
gain as opposed to having all value created by workers poured back into
the sector.
Do the shareholders of this monopoly play any part in
adding value to the Canadian socialized economy or do they play a
parasitic role? They are certainly not the ones who day after day
struggle to provide quality care to the residents and look after their
needs. Instead, these private interests siphon off funds
that are needed and should be used to improve care for residents and
bring up to Canadian standards the wages, benefits and working
conditions of the workers who provide the care.
TML denounces this latest attack on the right
of workers to decide on and fight for wages, benefits and working
conditions acceptable to themselves. The dedicated health care workers
have a right to wages and working conditions commensurate with the
important work they do and the value they
create. The right of workers to organize a collective fight for better
conditions must be recognized and provided with a guarantee, not
attacked by a government serving private monopoly interests.
Home Care Workers and Recipients
Say No to Private Profiteers
- Rita Soto -
 
Action at Legislature,
July 3, 2013.Home care workers and the communities they serve
continue to organize to demand that the Redford government reverse its
decision to consolidate all home care delivery in the hands of a few
large private monopolies.
Home care workers and families who receive home care
services from Strathcona County gathered at the Legislature on July 3.
They demanded that the government cancel its decision to hand over home
care in Strathcona County to We Care, a corporation organized for
private gain not to serve the home care
sector. Strathcona County Family and Community Services (SCFCS) have
been providing home
care in the county for years without parasitical claims for private
gain on the sector's value. The workers and families delivered letters
to Premier Alison Redford and Health Minister Fred Horne calling on him
to reverse
this retrogressive decision.
"The loss of these valuable home-care providers is a
serious blow for seniors who are trying to maintain their independence
and remain in their own homes as long as possible," said Noel
Somerville, chairman of the seniors' task force for the advocacy group
Public Interest Alberta (PIA). "We urge minister Horne to
intervene and bring an end to this foolish experiment. The bottom line
is that it has to be safe and reliable care, not corporate profit."
Friends of Medicare (FOM) points out that the contracts
for home care have been handed out without any public procurement
process. "The government is using our public health dollars to conduct
backroom deals with companies which do not have to provide the public
with any measurable outcomes when it
comes to the services they deliver," FOM Executive Director Sandra
Azocar stated.
FOM said it has been advised that
recipients of home care services are already being moved to private
agencies, which have been awarded contracts. In some cases, these
contracts are still under negotiation and have yet to be formalized.
"People's lives, continuity of care, and workers' livelihoods
are being impacted, and no one knows how these contracts will look like
at the end of the day. Nor do we know which agencies, with the
exceptions of CBI Health and Bayshore, have been awarded contracts and
how many more of our public health dollars will go towards profits for
these private corporations," said
Azocar. "When profit is the main driving force behind an integral part
of our health care system, the negative impacts are on recipients of
home care, their already-stretched families, and the workers who are
providing the front line services," she added.
Thirteen member organizations of the PIA Seniors' Task
Force have developed a detailed set of
recommendations on home care that they are calling on the provincial
government to adopt. The position paper is available on PIA's website.
Members of the task force include seniors' organizations,
health care advocacy groups and unions representing health care workers.
The private monopolies invading the home care sector
contribute nothing to building and improving its quality. Their main
role is as human traffickers of the workers needed in the sector. The
monopolies operate as parasites claiming a large portion of the
added-value created by the trafficked home care workers,
value which otherwise could be reinvested in the sector and go to the
workers as Canadian-standard wages, benefits and pensions. The private
monopolies introduce into the health care sector generally an
atmosphere of corruption and parasitism, and a regressive trend towards
higher user fees, lower wages, and downward
pressure on the quality of care, as value is taken out of the sector as
private gain.
Friends of Medicare, United Nurses of Alberta, the
Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, Public Interest Alberta and
others will hold a rally at the Legislature on Grandparents Day, Sunday
September 8. Mark your calendars!
The Contribution Home Care Workers
and Patients Make
- Peggy Morton -
 Home care workers add value to the
socialized economy and society. Their work contributes to society in
many ways. Home care workers provide care for people with disabilities,
in many cases making it possible for them to work, attend
post-secondary education and in other ways contribute to society. Home
care services are an invaluable part of rehabilitation of people with
a temporary illness or disability. They are part of the care team for
profoundly disabled people, and provide care that enables frail seniors
to remain in their homes for as long as possible. This value created by
their work enhances the well-being of
the people and society, and exceeds the wages, benefits and pensions
the workers claim.
The work of home care workers adds value to the economy
and cannot be considered a cost. Home care and other health care
workers know that this is the case and speak with intense conviction
about the importance of the work they perform. They fight for working
conditions that enable them to do their duty
to those they care for; they fight against the handing over of health
care and other social programs to private monopoly interests whose
motive is to seize a portion of the added-value workers create as
private profit and remove it from the sector and in many cases take it
right out of the economy.
Conversely, the private monopolies to whom the Redford
government and others are handing over home care delivery serve mainly
as labour brokers. They play a parasitic role, contributing nothing yet
seizing as private gain the added-value created by home care workers
and removing it from the sector to the
detriment of the workers, health care delivery, and the public interest.
According to capital-centred thinking, when the
added-value created by the working class is claimed either by the
workers themselves or by government for social programs, this is called
a cost. When wealth is transferred from the working people to the
owners of capital by either reducing wages and benefits
or degrading and eliminating social programs, this is called savings.
The workers and all those fighting for a human-centred
society are under constant pressure to accept a capital-centred world
outlook. This pressure on thinking and consciousness must be resisted.
For example, time and time again when private monopoly interests demand
that public services and social programs
be handed over to them as a source of private gain, the question is put
as to whether or not this will save money. The issue is not one of
saving money but how the money or value generated by work is allocated;
who has a legitimate claim on the value; how should those claims be
determined, and who should control
how the value can be reinvested in the economy and society.
Seniors and others waiting for placement in long-term
care are dehumanized and referred to as "bed-blockers." Grandiose
"costs" of caring for these seniors in hospital are tossed around,
arrived at by dividing the total hospital budget by the number of
patient days, as though this exercise provides any information
about the material and human resources needed and/or utilized to care
for seniors awaiting placement. Then it is claimed that thousands of
beds could be "freed up" by removing these patients from the hospitals,
and that these beds could then be used to reduce surgical waiting lists.
This dehumanized thinking ignores the reality that
patients needing acute care require not just a bed but also a high
level of human and material resources. The patients are not simply
waiting for placement somewhere other than in a hospital. Dehumanized
thinking presents seniors and the disabled generally as
a burden and cost to the society, when the issue is to affirm the right
to the level of care needed to live with dignity, to humanize the
social environment by increasing the value and investments in health
care and social programs generally. This enriches society and lifts it
up.
The need for home care is growing for several reasons.
In part, this is a positive trend as home care allows seniors to remain
in their homes longer if they wish. But home care is also used as an
inadequate substitute for more comprehensive care, or as an excuse not
to improve the quality of seniors' residences
generally, which should provide a vibrant, safe and inclusive
atmosphere with a high level of culture, food, recreation and political
involvement. Society should not waste the tremendous experience and
wisdom of seniors, which can be unlocked in many ways.
Regrettably, long-term care beds are being closed. More
than 1,500 long-term care beds will be closed in Alberta in 2013 alone.
Most home care workers are not unionized, and most do not share a
common workplace. It is much more difficult for home care workers to
defend their rights and those of the people
they care for, especially when faced with monopoly parasites that
traffic in human labour and whose private interests are represented and
defended right inside the highest levels of government. It is also
difficult for recipients of home care as individuals to defend
themselves against abuse, poor and improper care
and constantly rising user fees, when patients are reduced to a factor
for private gain of the monopolies.
 Home care, similar to all health
care, seniors' care and care for the disabled must be free,
comprehensive, and publicly funded. All home care services should be
publicly delivered, with provisions for co-operatives and other
community initiatives allowing them to play a positive role.
Arrangements based on enriching
private interests and having those private interests in control of
government, concentrating wealth in fewer hands, entrenching class
privilege and removing value from the health care sector as private
gain should be strictly prohibited. Home care must not be permitted to
be used as a means to reduce care that belongs
to the people by right. Home care, as a social program and publicly
delivered should be used when it is in the best interests of those
needing services as decided by their doctors and other caregivers,
their families and the patients themselves.
Defend the Rights of Workers! Uphold the
Rights of All!
Correctional Officers Fired in a Flagrant Abuse of
Governmental Power
- Peggy Askin -
Correctional officers
rally outside Law Courts in Edmonton, to oppose injunction against
their
wildcat strike to uphold
safe working conditions, April 30, 2013.Three correctional peace officers, members of the
Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), have been fired for
joining the wildcat strike of correctional officers, which took place
in April. Two of the officers were fired on July 5 and the third
officer was fired on July 8. This directly violates the
government's undertaking not to pursue penalties against individual
workers.
The wildcat strike began at the new Edmonton Remand
Centre after the government refused to delay the opening of the
facility despite many serious health and safety concerns. The three
workers are senior correctional peace officers in supervisory positions
at the Ft. Saskatchewan Correctional Centre just outside
Edmonton. Workers at the Centre walked out, as did workers across
the province to support them.
The strike continued for five days in defiance of back
to work orders because the union refused to leave the workers
vulnerable to discipline including firing. The strike was ended only
when AUPE President Guy Smith received a promise that the government
would not pursue retribution against individuals who
took part in the wildcat strike. Agreement was also reached that an
expedited review of the safety concerns of staff at the Remand Centre
would take place. Only then did AUPE direct its members to return to
work. AUPE notes that this undertaking was made very publicly, as can
be seen in the following statements.
On April 30, Deputy Solicitor General Tim Grant stated
during a press conference, "To be clear, we're not looking to seek
retribution against any individual members of the union."
On May 1, Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk, stated on News
Talk 770, "We don't want a pound of flesh from average Albertans, so we
will not be in any way pursuing individual union members."
Also on May 1, Justice Minister Jonathan Denis stated in
a press conference, "We have no issues with the workers themselves. We
thank them for the service that they do to the province every day."
Finally, on May 2, Premier Alison Redford stated in a
press conference as reported by the Edmonton
Journal, "We certainly did
say to the union that we were going to make sure there were no acts of
retribution."
Even as these statements were being made publicly, AUPE
President Smith reported that on May 1, in muster, workers at the
Edmonton Remand Centre were subjected to weasel words from Deputy
Solicitor General Tim Grant who said the workers were not protected
under the amnesty deal and there was no
new process to deal with their safety concerns.
The firing of the three correctional officers is a
flagrant abuse of power and brings dishonour to the government. So too
is the attempt to suspend collection of union dues and other
revenge-seeking measures. The Redford government together with Harper
and others across the country are gravely mistaken in
thinking they can launch these attacks on workers and their unions with
impunity.
The recent flooding in southern Alberta showed not only
the importance of public sector workers but also the deep regard that
Albertans hold for them and the work they do. People with disabilities,
seniors, high school students, home care recipients and many others are
standing as one with their caregivers, teachers
and other workers who provide public services to demand that the
government stop degrading services and handing them over to private
monopoly interests. They are standing as one for a high level of public
services based on providing rights with a guarantee, as a crucial
aspect in building a sustainable and prosperous
economy.
 Peter Lougheed brought the PCs to
power 42 years ago promising to recognize the rights of provincial
government workers. Instead, Lougheed's government and successive PC
governments have criminalized the right of government workers to strike
in defence of their wages and working conditions, extending
this legislation to include the entire health care sector as well. Now
the government is going even further, flagrantly seeking revenge by
firing workers who defended their rights. These unjust firings are a
direct violation of the government's clear undertaking not to do so.
Further, not content with stealing $350,000
from the workers' dues, it is engaged in other outrageous acts of
union-busting.
AUPE's slogan, "This is your province, we just look
after it for you" reflects the aspirations of Albertans and the working
people everywhere to exercise real decision-making power. The reality
is that this ownership now exists in name only, as the global
monopolies have weaseled their way right into government
authority and power. The monopolies and their political representatives
claim the right to make all the decisions, leaving the workers,
seniors, farmers, youth, small business people and First Nations to
pick up the pieces and try to deal with the consequences as best they
can. The challenge facing the Workers' Opposition
is to deprive the energy and other monopolies of their political
authority and power to deprive the working class and people of their
rights.
TML joins with all other justice-minded people
in demanding the immediate reinstatement of the three correctional
officers and the restitution of all funds taken from the Alberta Union
of Provincial Employees.
Stop Paying the Rich!
Energy Monopoly Profits in 2012
Second Only to Banks
The Redford regime continues to try to push the false
notion that the private energy monopolies are in big financial trouble.
The provincial government has been using that big lie to try to float
the idea that the province is facing a bitumen bubble and the need for
austerity and cuts to social programs and public
services. Redford claims the province cannot demand that the monopolies
hand over more revenue from their operations or run them as public
enterprise so that the government has enough funds to realize the value
created from social programs such as health care and education.
The government's big lie of low energy profits to push
austerity also shows that the Redford regime rejects the notion that
education, health care and other social programs are rights that must
be provided with a guarantee under any and all circumstances. Modern
economies are sustainable only with a high level
of social programs, public services, food security, manufacturing and
equilibrium between labour and capital based on recognition of the
rights of the working class.
 The July/August 2013 issue of the Globe and Mail Report on Business
provides annual financial data on the largest Canadian companies. The
information once again exposes the provincial government's lies about
the energy monopolies. During 2012, the after-tax profits of the energy
monopolies were, as a group,
second only to the profits of the big banks. The most profitable bank
was the Royal Bank (RBC), the top financier of oilsands bitumen
extraction and expansion. Between 2003 and 2007, the RBC cumulatively
issued over $2.3 billion in loans and financed more than $6.9 billion
in corporate debt for thirteen energy
companies.
Energy monopolies are highly ranked in the report by
profits in comparison to all other companies in all sectors with
Imperial Oil (5th), Suncor Energy (7th), Husky Energy (12th), Canadian
Natural Resources Limited (14th), TransCanada Pipelines (25th) and its
majority shareholder TransCanada Corporation
(26th), Cenovus Energy (30th), and Canadian Oil Sands (31st). All are
very active in Alberta's oil sands, as well as in other areas of the
energy industry. Imperial Oil owns 25 per cent of oil sands giant
Syncrude while Canadian Oil Sands owns 37 per cent. TransCanada wants
to build the Keystone pipeline to transport
Alberta's raw oil sands bitumen to refineries in the gulf coast of
Texas. This is in direct opposition to the popular call to "refine it
where you mine it."
The energy monopolies are also very highly ranked in
comparison to all other companies by revenues, which refers mainly to
gross income from sales and services to customers: Suncor (1st),
Imperial Oil (5th), Enbridge (12th), Husky Energy (14th), and Cenovus
Energy (20th). Enbridge wants to build the Northern
Gateway pipeline to ship diluted raw oil sands bitumen from a terminal
just outside Bruderheim, Alberta to the port of Kitimat, BC so that
the raw bitumen can then be transported by tanker to Asia.
Finally, the energy monopolies are also very highly
ranked in comparison to all other companies by market cap
(capitalization), which refers to the total market value of an exchange
traded company's shares, calculated by multiplying the stock market
share price by the number of shares. In capitalist
economics, a high market cap is considered a sign of investor
enthusiasm about the company's future prospects and a major lure for
further investment. High market cap rankings include Suncor Energy
(4th), Enbridge (7th), Imperial Oil (11th), Canadian Natural Resources
Limited (12th), and Husky Energy (14th).
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Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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