Arrogance of Those Who Wreck Social Programs and Reject Accountability
- Christine Dandenault -
Health care workers protest outside Premier Legault's office in Quebec
City, May 19, 2020.
At his daily press conference on the COVID-19
pandemic on May 19, Quebec Premier François Legault
criticized a demonstration that nurses held that morning in front of
the Premier's office in Quebec City.
Nurses, members of the Interprofessional Health
Care Federation of Quebec (FIQ) and the FIQ Private Sector (FIQP),
gathered in front of the Premier's office to call on the government,
and particularly Minister of Health Danielle McCann, to put an end to
Ministerial Order 007 and restore the rights of health care
professionals. Decreed on March 21, this ministerial order gives the
government executive, in the name of the public health emergency it has
declared, the power to unilaterally amend the collective agreements and
working conditions of workers in the health and social services
network. In particular, it gives them the power to unilaterally amend
the articles relating to leaves and vacation time so as to allow their
suspension or cancellation, and to amend the articles relating to the
movement of personnel to allow the assignment of personnel wherever the
administrations arbitrarily decide.
 During the
demonstration, FIQ members asked Minister McCann and the Premier to
stop proceeding by ministerial order with regard to the conditions of
health care professionals, and, instead to listen to them, who are
among those who have held the health care system together for decades,
and to recognize their rights. The protest also denounced the
Minister's decision to set up a confidential whistleblower hotline.
This is yet another attempt to smash the unions in the name of
protecting nurses, health care workers and so-called whistleblowers. It
shows that everything has become a matter of secret deals because the
institutions are no longer public and no longer accountable in any way.
"Quebec is in the process of deconfinement and we
are gradually resuming regular activities in the health network. In the
meantime, health care professionals are still deprived of their rights.
Their employer forces them to work full time, puts an end to holidays
and statutory holidays, and disrupts their schedules and vacations.
This is not the way they will get through the ordeal of the pandemic;
the ministerial order must be stopped quickly and the health care
professionals must be allowed to regain their working conditions," said
Nancy Bédard, President of the FIQ.
Instead of supporting the demands of the nurses,
whom he likes to call "our guardian angels," the Premier used his daily
air time on the development of the COVID-19 situation, which is said to
be followed by millions of people in Quebec, to attack the nurses and
disinform the public about the purpose of the demonstration and the
concerns and demands of FIQ members.
"Earlier, in front of our offices, the nurses'
union, the FIQ, held a demonstration. Well, obviously, I'm
disappointed," he said. "The FIQ's main demand is to increase the
ratios, therefore, to increase the number of nurses. What we have to
understand is that since we have been in government, over the past year
and a half, we have greatly increased the number of positions, at
almost all levels -- nurses, orderlies and others -- but unfortunately,
many positions have remained unfilled. So it is a bit theoretical to
say: we should increase the number of positions even more, while the
positions that are already posted are not being filled. So I understand
that this demand is a long-standing one, but we must first recognize
that there has been a significant increase in the number of positions,
and then the positions have not been filled."
The focus of the event was not the
nurse-to-patient ratios. It was about the need to put an end to
ministerial orders that decree working conditions and disrupt them at
will. It was about the abuse of power by the government executive. The
Premier did not say a word about that.
On the issue of ratios, the Premier did not tell
the truth, saying that his government is doing everything it can to
increase nursing positions, particularly full-time positions, but that
the positions are not being filled. He is fully aware of the fact that
nurses who apply for full-time positions get caught up in the nightmare
of mandatory overtime, impossible hours and the disastrous consequences
for their physical and mental health, not to mention the consequences
for patient care.
It is unacceptable for a Premier to use a press
briefing, which is supposed to provide information on the state of the
pandemic and the measures taken to combat it, to attack those who
protect us, without them even being present to explain their point of
view. The Premier must be held to account for his pathetic attempts to
repeat ad nauseam that working people are
irrational and simply complain because they are self-serving and greedy.
The Premier's credentials are that he is one of
those politicians who, beyond the often temporary membership in this or
that cartel party depending on what brings them to power or keeps them
in power, are part of the apparatus of government executive that has
wrecked social programs and public services for 30 years or more in the
service of narrow private interests. Needless to say, such credentials
do not prepare one to be modest and cultured, or recognize that working
people have rights which must be affirmed. They can neither be given
nor taken away nor forfeited in any way. It is those who we charge with
doing the work who must have the final say on working conditions in the
health care system.
Quebec workers have neither forgotten nor forgiven
the damage done by these decades of anti-social wrecking. They do not
accept that, in the name of the fight against the pandemic and the
urgency of the situation, they are to have no say over their working
conditions.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 19 - May 30, 2020
Article Link:
Arrogance of Those Who Wreck Social Programs and Reject Accountability - Christine Dandenault
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
|
