Important Demands of Frontline Workers to Face Second Wave

- Interview, Marjolaine Aubé -

Marjolaine Aubé is President of the Union of Workers at the Integrated Health and Social Services Centre of Laval (CISSS de Laval-CSN). These workers include those who lived through the tragedy at the Sainte-Dorothée residential and long-term care centre (CHSLD) in Laval in which 101 residents died and many workers contracted COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic. The interview below focuses on the demands put forward by the union from the beginning of the outbreak at the CHSLD, to defend the health and safety of patients and staff, to deal with the urgency of the situation and to ensure that such tragedies never happen again.

Workers' Forum: Can you tell us how many workers you represent and what work they do at the CISSS in Laval.

Marjolaine Aubé: I represent 4,200 members who are part of categories 2 and 3 at the CISSS of Laval. Category 2 includes orderlies, housekeeping staff, kitchen staff, specialized workers, what we call paratechnical staff. Category 3 includes office workers, involving administrative or computer work, etc. Our CISSS includes 29 establishments throughout the island of Laval. These are all the health and social services facilities in the network except for the university. We have a hospital site, CHSLDs, local community services centres (CLSCs), a youth centre, a readaptation centre for intellectual disabilities (CRDI) and a rehabilitation site.

WF: From the beginning of the pandemic, the union presented demands to deal with COVID-19. Can you tell us more?

MA: Our main demand at this time is to have the necessary equipment at the local level to protect us, namely the N95 mask. We need it for all the hot zones [where we are treating infected people] of our establishments. We made this demand with the other unions involved in the CISSS. The N95 is currently offered exclusively to those who work in areas such as intensive care or emergency. However, many studies have shown that airborne transmission of COVID-19 is also possible. This is especially the case if you put patients with COVID-19 in a common area. Our ventilation systems do not allow for proper removal of the virus particles. We want to be properly equipped so that we don't get infected and our patients don't get infected. We also need fit testing, to ensure the masks fit properly, for everyone working in the hot zones, because there are several kinds of N95 masks. For the moment, the employer has said no to this demand. We have appealed to the Labour Standards, Pay Equity and Workplace Health and Safety Board (CNESST) to remedy this situation.

As for our other demands, they have been accepted by the employer and our work at this time is to ensure their full implementation. In all cases, when presenting our demands to the employer, we have ensured that we also appealed to the Ministry of Health and Social Services.

Our first demand, on day one of the crisis, was for screening of all patients and employees in all our CHSLDs. At first the employer did not want to implement this measure. There was no screening if the person did not have symptoms of COVID-19 or had not traveled abroad. Staff had to work even if they had symptoms, and without protective equipment. We eventually prevailed, and it was when the screening was done that it was discovered that the CHSLD in Sainte-Dorothée was totally contaminated. Subsequently, in May, the Quebec government started implementing systematic screening of all employees, on a voluntary basis, in all CHSLDs in Quebec.

From the very beginning, we also demanded that the movement of personnel between establishments be stopped. We also demanded the cessation of movement between floors, so that no one would move from a cold zone [where residents are not infected by COVID-19] to a hot zone.

We also demanded that the employer provide full-time work in the position workers already occupied, so that they would not have a loss of income because of being limited to one workplace. It should be remembered that at the beginning, only 20 per cent of the orderlies were full-time. All the other positions were precarious. We have made significant gains in this regard, and we have also obtained a ban on the creation of flying squads for orderlies throughout Quebec. You can imagine how difficult it is for public health to investigate an outbreak if the worker was on a flying squad, how difficult it is to find out how the outbreak occurred, to trace the person's contacts, etc.

As far as personal protective equipment (PPE) is concerned, we have achieved some things. For example, we requested pairing of workers. Now, if two people work together, when it is break time, one staff member ensures that the other safely removes their PPE. This applies to anyone who sets foot in a hot zone, including housekeeping staff, for example, not just nurses or orderlies.

Through our work, we helped establish a joint post-pandemic committee in June that includes representatives from our three unions, as well as management representatives from several facilities, so that everyone can talk to each other. Our demands, with the exception of the one on safety equipment, were accepted in July. The decisions began to be implemented. It takes time, there are a lot of levels of decision-making, a complicated hierarchy. But we can say that we now have a plan at the local level. It is not yet fully implemented but we are moving forward.

To get there, we have made more than 150 public interventions in the media to get people to listen to us. We have also asked for help from the Ministry. Certainly the tone has changed in our CISSS because of this work.

Right now, there are outbreaks of COVID-19 everywhere, including Laval. We are in the second wave. Everyone must take the necessary precautions, including wearing masks. Those who refuse to wear a mask risk having themselves or those they are in contact with becoming our patients. We don't want to relive the crisis of the first wave. That's why we have put forward all these demands and are working to ensure that they are thoroughly implemented.

(Translated from original french by Workers' Forum.)

This article was published in

Number 67 - October 6, 2020

Article Link:
Important Demands of Frontline Workers to Face Second Wave - Interview, Marjolaine Aubé

    

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