Reopen rural ERs: SEIU-West; UNA, AHS defer talks until September
Fix long-term care issues: Union
TORONTO — Urgent action is needed from the provincial government to address conditions in all the province’s long-term care homes, not only in the five homes identified in a scathing report from the Canadian military on May 26, according to the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA).
“We have been elevating our concerns about a growing number of long-term care homes for some time now,” says Vicki McKenna, ONA president. “Unfortunately, we have been forced to use the legal system to compel groups of long-term care homes to follow the directives issued by government. ONA received an arbitration award on May 4 that addresses many of these same issues for more than 200 Ontario long-term care homes, and we continue to push employers to ensure the award is adhered to.”
ONA has also “called in the Ministry of Labour, which has written few orders yet rarely been on site to conduct physical inspections. This sector needs immediate attention,” says McKenna.
A number of long-term care reports have been issued over the past two decades in Ontario which continue to make recommendations to improve the sector, says the union.
Reopen rural ERs: SEIU-West
SASKATOON — The Ministry of Health and the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) responded on May 27 to concerns raised by the Service Employees International Union West (SEIU) about the closure of emergency rooms (ERs) in a number of rural communities.
“The impact of scaling down these facilities to alternate levels of care is huge for rural communities,” says Barbara Cape, SEIU-West president. “It’s not only the loss of services and the requirement to travel further in the event of an emergency, but we have also seen the immediate impact on our members who do diagnostics in those communities.”
Alternative level of care (ALC) is a designation being used by the SHA to create capacity in larger health facilities for COVID-19 patients by transferring non-COVID-19 patients to regional hospitals. In some cases, less than 48 hours’ notice was provided to facilities and staff of the change to the status of the ER, says the union.
Technologists are expected, on a scheduled basis, to be on standby assignment and in the case of an emergency they must come back into the workplace. This initiative creates a just-in-time workforce without any corresponding commitment from SHA to honour those hours, says the union.
UNA, AHS defer talks until September
EDMONTON — The United Nurses of Alberta (UNA) and Alberta Health Services (AHS) on May 25 agreed to continue the pause on bargaining for a new direct nursing collective agreement, including the extension of no-layoff provisions, until Sept. 1 while the province’s response to COVID-19 continues.
UNA proposed the extension until Sept. 1 on May 12, and Alberta Health Services agreed on May 21, says the UNA.
In response to the circumstances related to COVID-19, UNA and AHS came to the agreement that bargaining between the union and the employer group made up of AHS, Covenant Health, Lamont Health Care Centre, and The Bethany Group (Camrose) for a new agreement would be suspended, says the union.
While the province was slowing beginning what the government has called a “re-launch” of the economy after lockdown in mid-May, the coronavirus pandemic clearly continues to present a major threat to public health, says the UNA.
