Anti-Worker Schemes Using Pandemic as Pretext
The Defence of Workers' Rights is Key to Stop the Propagation of COVID-19
- Pierre Chénier -
 
Quebec
health care workers defend their rights and affirm; "We are the
solution," "Demand a better health care system."
The
COVID-19 crisis continues to be used as an excuse by government
executives to attack workers and people and further privatize health
care and social services. Thirty years and more of the anti-social
offensive has resulted in the normalization of practices which divert a
massive amount of state funds from patient care to the coffers of
multinational corporations in construction and support services
including food services, housekeeping, IT, nursing care and others. It has also
resulted in the proliferation of private-for-profit operators in
seniors' care. The system is in crisis and the norms for which workers
fought are being eroded. This anti-social offensive is being
strengthened in the conditions
of the COVID-19 crisis and this is having a dramatic effect on the
lives of the people, increasing the danger during phase two of the pandemic
that has already set in.
For example, the number of resignations of health care staff has hugely increased all over Quebec.
 Just
in Montreal, it is now estimated by the unions representing workers in
the Integrated University Health and Social Services Centre (CIUSSS)
of Montreal East that more than 1,800 workers have resigned
since the beginning of this year. These are workers from all categories
-- nurses, housekeeping staff, food service workers,
clerical and administrative support workers, etc. They either leave the
sector, take early retirement (with the penalty it imposes on their
pension benefits) or stay in the sector but go to work for private
hiring agencies. If they go to work for private agencies, workers
sacrifice their benefits, including pensions, because the income they
get from the
agency is not pensionable, in order to have what the agencies call
freedom of choice in hours of work. This means that their hours are
scheduled ahead of time by contract and cannot be extended through
mandatory overtime.
Workers
also report that more and more of the private hiring agencies are
involved in human trafficking. Through a system
of subcontracting, the agency that contracts with the public authority
subcontracts to others who may again subcontract and the end result is
that there are many health care workers who are undocumented, with no rights
whatsoever. The numerous demonstrations of migrant workers without
permanent status or who are undocumented have amply shown the
systematic mistreatment that these workers are subjected to as a
disposable workforce and the role that the private hiring agencies
play. The number of unorganized and precarious workers in health care
is constantly increasing.
As private hiring agencies proliferate in the conditions of the crisis in the
public health care sector, it is becoming more and more common for
managers of public integrated health and social services centres to
themselves become owners of private hiring agencies. A strata is being
groomed from within the leadership of the public health care system to
become the owners of private agencies so as to increase the number of
workers hired through them and to dismantle norms and standards and
continuity of health care. For example, private hiring agencies can
send workers to one health establishment one day and to another the
next day, and in this way workers become potential vectors in the
propagation of the virus.
As well, the collective agreements of Quebec public sector workers
expired on March 31 and the unions report that negotiations are
going nowhere because the government is ignoring the workers' demands and is trying to impose concessions that will only further
aggravate the situation in the sector.
 For
example, the Fédération de la santé du
Québec has revealed some of the government's concessionary
demands. One of these demands is to redefine overtime by averaging the
hours of work over more than a week. The current
work week is defined as a five-day week. Any hours over the agreed upon
regular hours have
to be paid at the overtime rate. Averaging the hours of work over more
than five days will make it possible for employers to pay regular rates
even when workers are forced to extend their hours of work in a day.
Meanwhile, in the name of "flexibility," the government wants to create
work schedules in which the number of days could vary from
one week to another. These are not only serious economic attacks
against workers but also provocations that contribute to the burnout
and
resignations of health care workers.
Health care workers are rejecting this provocation and blackmail and
insisting that immediate improvements must be made in health care
and social services on the basis of their demands. Workers are
defending their ability to act collectively through their defence
organization and to speak as one to defend themselves and protect the
people they care for. The collective action of workers and
their implementation of safety measures is a key factor in stopping the
propagation of the virus. The situation clearly shows the need to
change the direction of health care and social services, to completely
eliminate private profiteering from the system.
As workers are stepping up their fight for their rights and the rights of all Workers' Forum opens its pages to make the voice of the workers heard.
This article was published in
Number 71 - October 20, 2020
Article Link:
Anti-Worker Schemes Using Pandemic as Pretext: The Defence of Workers' Rights is Key to Stop the Propagation of COVID-19 - Pierre Chénier
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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