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Interviews "We Are Not Giving Up on Anything -- Help Us to Help You!"Marjolaine Aubé is President of the Union of Workers at the Integrated Health and Social Services Centre of Laval (CISSS de Laval-CSN). Workers' Forum: How would you describe the current situation regarding the fight against the pandemic at the CISSS of Laval? Marjolaine Aubé: I would describe the situation as very critical and grim. During the first wave, COVID-19 infection was mainly in the residential and long-term care centres (CHSLDs) and seniors' residences. As for the situation at the hospital in Laval, there wasn't much going on, it was almost deserted. The second wave is expressing itself everywhere. Several establishments are affected, including the hospital where there are many outbreaks. It's going faster, it's not concentrated in the residential centres but everywhere, in all our facilities. We also have patients who have been transferred to the Laurentides and Lanaudière regions, because they are a little less affected, while Laval is once again being hit hard.
We have been asking for ventilation reports from the employer since July. The employer kept promising it would provide them but it never did. The nurses' union finally made an access to information application but given the delay, between July and now, which is too long, we filed 20 complaints about the ventilation systems of the Laval CISSS with the Labour Standards, Pay Equity and Workplace Health and Safety Board (CNESST). We now have an inspector on the file, who has started her inspections and has already found that many things are not working. She has given the employer 10 days to provide the necessary documentation for her to do her inspections. We're on hold as to what the inspection is going to yield. The claim of the three unions at the CISSS has been the same since March. COVID-19 is airborne and we must have N95 masks. The INSPQ has just recognized that the disease is airborne. The World Health Organization has been saying this for a long time, as has Health Canada and other organizations. Many health experts are urging the provincial and federal governments to provide health care workers with adequate equipment, namely N95s. We are asking for N95s and we are doing it through the CNESST, we are asking for the assistance of the CNESST. We filed another complaint concerning our workers at the emergency room of La Cité de la Santé Hospital. The emergency room operates in modules, depending on the type of illness and treatment. In these modules, they did not make green, yellow, or red zones, based on levels of COVID-19 infection. The patients are all mixed up together. A nurse goes from a red patient to red, another goes from yellow to yellow, another from green to green. The orderlies, on the other hand, are going indiscriminately from red to green to yellow, allegedly because they don't spend enough time with the patients to get infected. We complained to management, who told us that they were following the standards for emergencies. We complained to CNESST and found the INSPQ documents that deal with how to organize an emergency during the COVID pandemic. According to INSPQ, in emergencies there must be defined red, yellow and green zones and there must be no mobility of personnel. In addition, in the guide for emergencies, patients must be two meters apart and there must be a separation between them.[1] We do not yet have adequate working conditions to stop the spread of COVID-19 and protect workers and patients. There is still staff mobility, although it is not the same everywhere. The government and employers are looking for non-traditional sites to house patients with COVID-19. But we are the same people, the same staff. Yes, there have been additions of orderlies but the rate of worker contamination continues non-stop. The main types of jobs where people are off work because of COVID-19 are the orderlies, the administrative clerks, who are the point of entry to the clinics, local community service centres (CLSCs), etc., and housekeeping. We have noticed in Laval that often, if we have an infected patient, we have an infected employee. In some cases we have one for one, but many times there is one patient and two infected orderlies. WF: Do you want to add something in conclusion? MA: One of the key issues that needs to be addressed is the N95 mask. Until this is resolved, our situation is going to be very problematic, that's for sure. We are more than tired of always having to demand the N95. We want the INSPQ recommendations on the airborne character of COVID transmission to become compulsory for employers. Certainly, containment is something difficult, but people have to imagine that we've been in combat since March and we still haven't seen the end of it. We're telling everyone, "Help us help you." As far as we are concerned, our slogan is "We are not giving up on anything." The situation has forced us to become experts ourselves on all sorts of levels, in health and safety, masks and protective equipment, the mode of transmission of the disease, public health, etc. We have to be self-taught because it's not in the manuals that we find all this. For example, we learned with the pandemic that the precautionary principle contained in the Occupational Health and Safety Act no longer exists in reality, at least not in our CISSS. This is why our slogan is "we're not giving up on anything." Note1. Following the interview the union reported a success in its complaint about the emergency room at the Cité de la Santé. The union's Facebook page states:
"Subject: mobility of PABs [orderlies] in the different zones: from red to yellow to green etc.,
"Today was the meeting with the employer, a representative of CNESST and two emergency directors from the Ministry of Health and Social Services.
"We said NO to moving between zones and the decision was taken immediately by CNESST.
"The employer must, within a period not exceeding 10 days, put in place extraordinary measures to prevent any movement between the coloured zones. These measures include the presence of PCI [Infection Prevention and Control] coaches 24 hours a day, seven days a week, pending an adequate organization of work that does not require any mobility.
"Congratulations to the Health and Safety team!!
"Your union executive." (Translated from original French by Workers' Forum.)
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In addition, there is the whole issue of
ventilation systems in our
facilities. We have a concentration of patients who are infected with
COVID-19. We have facilities that are very old and we also have
facilities that are newer. Over the years, the facilities have been
renovated on the inside. Where we had one office, for example, it may
have
been rearranged into four offices, separated by partitions, but the
ventilation system was not changed. The ventilation system is no longer
optimal. A report has just been submitted by the National Institute of
Public Health of Quebec (INSPQ) which makes many recommendations
regarding ventilation systems and equipment, and proposes several
measures. It is clearly stated in the document that if all the required
measures are not put in place, it will not work, that the measures are
complementary.