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September 15, 2020 - No. 61
Serious Challenges in Health Care and Social Services
All Out to Support Workers' Rights
and Voices 
• Suroît Hospital: Nurses' Actions Highlight the Seriousness of the Situation
• Lakeshore General Hospital in Montreal: Emergency Department at Breaking Point
• Rallies Across Ontario Against Government's Use of Ministerial Powers to Trample Workers' Rights
- Interview, Michael Hurley, President, Ontario Council of Hospital Unions
Letters to the Editor
• Letter from a Person Living in a Private Seniors' Residence in Montérégie, Quebec
• The Yellow Brick Jail
- Poem by a Temporary Caregiver in a Montreal Residential and Long-Term Care Centre
Serious Challenges in Health Care and Social Services
Each day brings more news about untenable working conditions in
health care and social services and concerns that the delivery of
services is reaching a breaking point. One of the salient features of
this dire situation is the resignation of an ever-increasing number of
nurses and other health care workers. This loss aggravates the existing acute staff shortage which has been worsened by illness
and injury that force more and more workers onto sick leave. There are
cases where nurses had to organize on-the-job actions such as sit-ins
or refusals to show up for work because the conditions are so unsafe
for themselves and their patients. The prospect of facing a
predicted second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic under these conditions
is daunting.
 The
unsustainability of the working conditions goes hand in hand with the
unsustainability of the process by which the government executives are
using ministerial powers to attack workers' rights and to violate their
negotiated conditions, ignore their experience and expertise, their
proposals, and their voice. Workers are delivering services at
great risk to their health and their lives, and have to work in a
situation where the decision-making process is not of their making nor
the people's making. This process denies that they are the
essential factor in the delivery of services and must have a decisive
say in the organization of health care and social services. No matter
how often and
how emphatically they are called "guardian angels," they are considered
and treated as a cost to the system, and as troublemakers who are
disrupting those with executive power with their demands, their
concerns, and their voice. This contempt for their dignity and rights,
on top of the untenable working conditions, is a major factor leading
to
resignations and illness and heightened anxiety amongst health care
workers.
Workers' Forum firmly supports all the efforts and the
determination of the workers to present solutions that can alleviate
the crisis for the benefit of all. Among others, these are the demands
for improved staff/patients ratios; solving the problem of hiring
and retaining personnel by providing proper working conditions; ending
mandatory overtime; ending the practice of forcing workers to move from one place to
another, especially from cold zones, where there are no COVID-19
infections, to hot zones where there are infections,
and so on. Health care workers also have our full support for their
demand that the ministerial orders and dictatorial laws be withdrawn.
This
includes the court action that the Interprofessional Health Care
Federation of Quebec (FIQ) filed on July 13 against the Legault government's renewal of
its March 21 ministerial order 2020-007 which violates their members'
rights and continues to suspend several provisions in their collective
agreement.
 Workers
also need space and time to exchange views on the situation, speak in
their own name and assess what can be done to block the attacks on
workers and the public and to provide a new direction to the health
care system, to all aspects of delivery of services, and to the economy
as a whole so as to build a society which is fit for human
beings. Workers' Forum is working actively to facilitate the
exchange of views and discussion by workers in health care and other
sectors and to contribute to organizing other kinds of forums in
which workers speak their minds on their situation and the challenges
they are facing.
In this issue, Workers' Forum is publishing information on
the conditions and fight of Quebec and Ontario workers in health and
social services, along with two contributions it has received: a letter
from a senior living in a private seniors' residence and a poem written
by a youth who worked as a temporary caregiver in a Montreal
long-term care centre.
Nurses at the Suroît Hospital in Quebec's
Montérégie-West region say they can no longer guarantee
safe patient care. The shortage of staff in the emergency room is
particularly dramatic, they say. They explain that there is an
occupancy rate in the Emergency Department of over 170 per cent, with
only half of the necessary staff. Citing the
danger to the public, some nurses refused to report for their shifts in
the emergency room during the night of September 9-10.
"When health care professionals refuse to start their shifts, it is
not on a whim, but because they fear for their own safety and
especially that of their patients. The shortage of staff in the
Emergency Department is more than glaring," said Vanessa Léger,
acting president of the Union of Care Professionals of
Montérégie-West.
Faced with the refusal of the management of the Integrated Health
and Social Services Centre of the Montérégie-West and
the Ministry of Health to ensure the safety of patients and staff, the
union made an urgent appeal to the Administrative Labour Tribunal (TAT)
to intervene so that measures are taken to ensure that care can be
provided
safely. The TAT refused to intervene, stating that it does not have the
authority to do so under the Labour Code.
However, nurses recall that the TAT intervened on April 8, ruling that nurses should be required to work mandatory overtime in
emergencies or exceptional situations during their day without overtime
pay.
"The court decided to do nothing. It can intervene against the union
and its members, but not against an employer despite an urgent
situation that threatens the health and safety of patients," said
Vanessa Léger. The union is currently assessing all possible options for
recourse.
The union points out that it has proposed several solutions,
including the establishment of a joint committee to rectify the
situation, incentives to retain and attract nurses, and the creation of
positions adapted to the reality of the occupancy rate. The authorities
are not listening.
"Care professionals have solutions. Concrete incentives must be put
in place immediately to get out of this major crisis at the
Suroît Hospital. In this regard, the Union of Care Professionals
of Montérégie-West considers the situation extremely
critical and is urgently calling for these incentives," wrote the
president of the union.
The Montreal-West Island Union of Care Professionals has
stated that the emergency nurses at the Lakeshore General Hospital in
Pointe-Claire can no longer meet the population's needs due to a
critical shortage of staff. The Emergency Department's occupancy rate
is currently at 129 per cent, and there is a regular shortage of
nurses and nursing assistants on a number of shifts.
The union explains that one of the major problems is that many
nurses are on sick leave, and the necessary replacement staff
cannot be recruited because of the unsustainable working conditions. It
has put forward several proposals since 2018 to end the overwork and
understaffing in the Emergency Department.
"We have taken countless steps to correct the situation and have
quickly put action plans in place. Emergency care professionals signed
a petition in March 2019, and although the employer has made efforts to
correct the situation, it is not succeeding in attracting and retaining
emergency room staff," said union president Johanne Riendeau.
Under these circumstances the union is demanding that the
government fulfill its responsibility to deal with the crisis in a way
that meets the needs of the nurses and the public.
"The working conditions are not attractive enough and the
professionals are leaving on sick leave due to exhaustion. Our most
recent demand is to pay nurses and auxiliary nurses double the rate,
but this demand was refused. We are addressing ourselves directly to
the Minister of Health and Social Services, Christian Dubé, and
to the Premier,
François Legault, who for the moment pay little attention to the
care team and to all the care professionals who comprise it. The
government must act quickly and concretely to improve working
conditions and make the positions of healthcare professionals more
attractive," Riendeau said.
- Interview, Michael Hurley, President, Ontario Council of Hospital Unions - 
Kenora, August 27,
2020
Workers' Forum: The Ontario Council of Hospital Unions is at
the heart of a mass action campaign to get the Ontario government to
drop ministerial orders it has passed which violate workers' rights
with impunity. Can you tell us more about the campaign?
Michael Hurley: Let me say first that the COVID crisis
is taking a very big toll on health care and social service workers in
Ontario. Sixteen have died and, as of today, 6,752 have caught COVID at
work. When we compare ourselves to other countries, like China, for
example, about twice as many workers have died but China has
100 times the population. They have been much more thorough at
protecting their health care workforce than Ontario or Canada have.
To add insult to injury, one of the ways in which the Ontario
government has faced the COVID crisis is to give itself and employers
the power to override many important elements of workers' basic
workplace rights. These include, for example, the right to have a
defined shift, the right not to be reassigned without notice, the right
not to have
their job eliminated without notice. They can also bring in contractors
now, and vacations and parental leaves can be cancelled in many areas.
 Basic
workplace rights built up over decades have been undone. Bear in mind
that in most of these workplaces -- in most health care workplaces,
most social service workplaces, and most municipal workplaces in
Ontario where these rights are being over-ridden -- there are no COVID
cases. There have never been any. There are none in the
workplaces now and there are none in many of these communities. That is
the reality.
What we have undertaken is a campaign, in conjunction with other
unions in the Ontario Federation of Labour, to organize rallies to
build consciousness and to demonstrate our opposition to the
government's actions. These rallies have been successful and have been
building in terms of their strength, which encourages us to hold more
rallies
and aim for double the number of participants in the next series. We
plan to continue mobilization of the membership until our basic
workplace rights are restored. We have 30 rallies planned from now
to the end of October and we are going to have a second series in
November and December. These rallies are being organized across
Ontario.
We have had rallies in Kenora, at the border with Manitoba, in Fort
Frances, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, North Bay, Ottawa,
Pembroke, Renfrew, Cornwall, Brockville and we are starting now into
Southern Ontario.
People are very supportive of our actions when we explain what is
going on. I don't think that the population of Ontario is aware that
these rights have been taken away from health care and social service
workers. Part of the point of having these rallies is to mobilize
public opinion because we really believe that the public is grateful to
these workers because they have tried to be helpful through this
crisis. I do not think people expect that the government that calls
them heroes is also taking away some of their most important workplace
rights.
We also need to familiarize the public with the nature of what these
changes mean. For example, 85 per cent of this workforce is female and
40 per cent are single parents. It has sometimes taken a worker 20
years to get day shifts, and they have small children, and now their
employer can tell them that as of tomorrow they are working
permanent nights, or that they are being assigned to work in another
community which does not have public transit. They are told that their
transit problem or their childcare problems are not the employers'
concern, at a time when childcare centres are closed, emergency
childcare for front-line providers is quite limited and family bubbles
are
small. This is a huge issue for people. We are trying to explain the
impact of all this to the public. We are confident that the public will
be horrified and that there is going to be increased pressure on the
government.
WF: What demands are being put forward at these rallies?
MH: We have a number of demands. We are asking the
government to drop the order that overrides the collective agreements
of these 600,000 or so health and social service workers. That can be
done simply with a Cabinet meeting. The order is part of Bill 195 which
was passed in July but the bill says that the government
may at any time amend or alter or delete any of these orders. So we are
saying that they should use their powers to do that.
 These
measures were implemented first through an emergency order in March
when COVID-19 first hit. That order was extended month by month and in
July the government passed new legislation, the Reopening Ontario Act.
That bill says that we've got the COVID crisis under control, we are
reopening Ontario and yet it extends the
override of these collective agreement rights for a period of at least
one and up to three years. This happened in July. The bill was tabled
and passed within a 10-day period. No opposition amendments were
accepted. It did not go to committee. There was no opportunity for the
unions to have any input into the bill. The bill was passed under a
closure motion.
This is not acceptable and we are working to increase the pressure
on the government to drop these measures against health care and social
service workers.
We are also asking them to face up to the fact that this is an
airborne virus and that the workers in these settings need to be
properly protected. So far they have not been, both in terms of the
guidance they and their employers receive from the government in terms
of how the virus should be treated and managed, and also in terms of
the
protective equipment that is provided.
These are our two key demands. Ottawa, September 9, 2020
Kingston, September 8, 2020
North Bay, September 4, 2020
Sudbury, September 3, 2020
Sault Ste. Marie, September 2, 2020
Thunder Bay, September 1, 2020
Letters to the Editor
Workers' Forum received this letter from a person who
lives in a private seniors' residence. It is written in the form of a
letter to Quebec Premier François Legault.
Premier François Legault,
At the beginning of the containment, you spoke at length about the
health care workers you called "Guardian Angels," about how
essential they were in fighting the COVID-19 virus afflicting Quebec.
At that time, we all believed that the government was wholeheartedly
with them and that it would use all the resources at its disposal to
help them emerge stronger from the pandemic. We, as seniors living in
private residences, CHSLDs [residential and long-term care centres] or
in our family homes, rely enormously on the support from these people
in caring for and taking care of us. This is why we were happy that the
government referred to them as Guardian Angels.
Unfortunately, your words as Premier have not lived up to your
actions and responsibilities. Everyone in Quebec experienced the
tragedy of the large number of deaths in CHSLDs and seniors' residences
and how the virus spread because those Guardian Angels were denied the
right to decide on how both residents and they themselves were to
be protected. Everyone is now aware that what happened was the result
of decades of government cuts and austerity measures. It's an open
secret that the government doesn't want to talk about.
 While
you were calling health care workers Guardian Angels, you referred to
us as the builders of modern Quebec. The COVID-19 virus raging in
CHSLDs and private residences took the lives of thousands of the
builders of modern Quebec. At that time also, we were flattered by the
compliment you paid us, because it was definitely true. We
are the living witnesses of the quiet revolution and important public
institutions such as Hydro-Québec that have shaped Quebec to this day.
We are the children of a period that saw Quebec modernize itself before
our eyes, but we are also the parents of the children who continue to
build our Quebec.
You are right, Mr. Premier, that we are the builders of modern
Quebec. Unfortunately, once again we are being let down. We expected
that this Quebec we helped build would take care of us like the apple of
its eye. That's not what happened. We feel that the only use we have
now is to hand over huge amounts of the money we have
accumulated throughout our lives to private companies so that we can be
housed and taken care of. Our pension funds and personal savings have
built the fortunes of individuals who have built personal mini-empires
for themselves. We're under the impression that not only did we build
Quebec, now we're being asked to pay to be able to continue
to live here, as if the Quebec we built does not belong to us.
Moreover, you've crammed the most vulnerable and sick from amongst
us into public residences without taking care of the Guardian Angels
who care for them. Is this the ultimate reward the Quebec state can
give to the builders of modern Quebec? I don't think so.
During the containment, you treated us like children, as if we had
lost our ability to think. At our residence, we were encouraged to
spend our time making little drawings, as if we were in kindergarten,
rather than being encouraged to participate in ensuring our own safety,
amongst ourselves as well as in collaboration with our Guardian
Angels. That, in my opinion, would have been the best way of fighting
the virus and of emerging from the pandemic as human beings proud of
what we had accomplished.
One thing is for sure, Mr. Premier -- that unfortunately it's too late
for those who have died from COVID-19. However, for those who remain,
we have learned important lessons, such as that it's never too late to
learn and act.
- Poem by a Temporary Caregiver in a
Montreal Residential and Long-Term Care Centre -
Workers' Forum received the following poem. Below is the French text, then our English translation.
La prison de briques jaunes Lorsque tous les matins,
Elle se dirigeait vers la prison de briques jaunes,
Elle enfilait son masque, sa jaquette, sa visière et ses gants
Elle prenait l'ascenseur vers les étages supérieurs
Et dans ces couloirs puants et
asphyxiants bordés de cellules
Elle surveillait chaque prisonnier avec angoisse « Non, ne sortez pas, il ne faut pas sortir,
Bientôt, bientôt, on pourra vous sortir,
Non, ne vous levez pas,
vous allez tomber et vous faire mal,
Bientôt, bientôt, on viendra vous aider
Non, ne pleurez pas, il ne faut pas pleurer,
Bientôt, bientôt, on pourra vous changer » Et lorsqu'elle
nourrissait une telle résidente
Lorsqu'elle donnait à boire à un tel patient
Lorsqu'elle peignait les cheveux à une telle autre
Et lorsqu'elle offrait de l'espoir à un tel autre
Elle s'offrait ainsi à elle-même de l'espoir Et lorsqu'elle étanchait la soif,
Elle étanchait sa propre soif
Et lorsqu'elle les soulevait,
Elle se soulevait elle-même
Ce n'était plus eux, mais elle maintenant, Lorsqu'elle crémait un corps,
C'était toujours elle,
Lorsqu'elle rassurait un patient
C'était encore elle,
Lorsqu'elle habillait un résident,
C'était rendu elle.
Elle qui était dans la
cellule
Elle qu'elle regardait dans les yeux,
Elle qui ne respirait plus,
Elle qui ne pouvait sortir,
Elle qui mourra seule, Et après avoir fini son shift,
Après avoir donné ce qu'elle
pensait de l'espoir,
Elle quittait enfin la prison de brique jaune vers chez elle,
Et lorsqu'elle s'étendait dans la nuit,
Les traces du masque et de la visière gravés dans sa chair
Il ne lui restait plus que comme seul fantôme,
Les corps perdus et les
promesses
brisées.
The Yellow Brick Jail When every morning,
She'd make her way to the yellow brick jail,
She'd don her mask,
gown, visor and gloves
Take the elevator to the upper floors
And from those smelly and suffocating cell-lined corridors
Watch over each of the prisoners with anguish "No, don't go out, you mustn't go out,
Soon,
soon, we'll be able to take you out,
No, don't get up, you'll fall and hurt yourself,
Soon, soon, we'll come to help you
No, don't cry, you mustn't cry,
Soon, soon, we'll be able to change you" And when she fed
one of the residents
When she gave a patient something to drink
When she combed another's hair
And when she gave hope to yet another
She offered hope to herself When she quenched their thirst,
She quenched her
own thirst
When she lifted them, she lifted herself
It was no longer them now, but her When she put cream on a body,
It was now her body,
When she reassured a patient
She reassured herself When she dressed a resident,
She was now dressing herself.
Herself in the cell
Gazing into her own eyes,
No longer breathing,
No longer able to go out,
She was the one who would die alone, And after finishing her shift,
After giving what she felt was hope,
She would finally leave the yellow brick jail for home,
And when she lay down at night,
The traces of the mask and visor etched on her skin
The ghosts haunting
her
Were the lost bodies and the broken promises.
(To access articles individually click on the black headline.)
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