Fight for a Modern Humane Health Care System - Pierre
Soublière - 
November
6, 2020. Workers protest in front of
Gatineau hospital. Hundreds of nurses
and orderlies
demonstrated in front of the Hull and Gatineau hospitals on Friday,
November 6 to denounce the recent measures taken by the Integrated
Health and Social Services Centre of the Outaoiais (CISSSO) to force
part-time workers to work full time. These measures are made possible
by the March ministerial
order according to which the collective agreement in health care can be
modified. This allows CISSS employers to, among other things, cancel
employees' holidays and force them to work full time, even those who
want to stay part-time. The order even allows for fines of $1,000 to
$6,000.  The CISSSO says
that it must meet "the growing needs of Hull and Gatineau hospitals
especially due to COVID-19." It also points to staff shortages which
are very high in the Outaouais, as they are in other regions. The
unions, long before the pandemic, and now at the bargaining tables,
have put forward a series of measures which must be
implemented to solve this problem, measures which have everything to do
with improving their working conditions. The latest measures imposed by
the CISSSO are precisely why people leave, either because they have
fallen ill or are at the end of their rope and quit. For example, 41
CISSSO workers are presently infected with COVID-19.
Faced
with the same situation, last week health
workers from Trois-Rivières demonstrated on the Lejeune
bridge to alert the public to the situation, including the number
of resignations and the government's refusal to remedy the situation.
These workers, like others, are told by their employer that if they are
not happy they can go work
elsewhere. They pointed out that what they are fighting for is the
future of the health care system, and that they fear that the system
will collapse if things don't change. As an example
of the extent to which health care
employers refuse to collaborate with the workers, even with regards to
the safety of employees, patients and residents, the Interprofessional
Health Care Federation of Quebec
(FIQ) announced on October 28 that it had to go to the Superior Court
so that unions could have access to workplaces to inspect the
ventilation systems and analyze air quality. The action was taken with
regards to the Lionel-Emond long-term care facility in the Outaouais
and the long-term
care facility Vigi Mont-Royal in Montreal. In the latter, during the
first wave, all 223 residents were infected and 68 people died, and
many health workers tested positive for COVID-19. The outcome of the
union's action was that the Administrative Labour Tribunal ordered
CISSSO and Vigi Santé Ltée to allow the union to
have access to the
workplaces to inspect the ventilation systems and analyze the air
quality. The tribunal reasserted the importance of a partnership
between the unions and employers to eliminate the dangers at the
source, as stipulated in the Act Respecting Occupational
Health and Safety (AOHS). Today's
society, with its highly socialized
economy, depends on collaboration of workers in one sector and among
sectors. This collaboration is even more important in these times of
pandemic in which the focus is on ensuring the health and security of
people in their workplaces and that of the people they are caring for.
Why does the Legault government, with its calls to
"stand shoulder to shoulder" in order to overcome the pandemic, refuse
to collaborate for the well-being of all and the greater good?
This article was published in
Number 77 - November 12, 2020
Article Link:
Fight for a Modern Humane Health Care System - Pierre
Soublière
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
|
