Hospital support staff making themselves heard
Agroup of support staff from the CIUSSS de l’estrie – CHUS, the Eastern Townships’ regional healthcare institution, held a gathering and demonstration in front of the Hotel-dieu hospital on Tuesday to show support for negotiations currently underway between the administration and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
According to union member Carle Couture, the current negotiatons are a by-product of the healthcare reform that created the CIUSSS in the first place
“There are 110 establishments in the CIUSSS de l’estrie that all had to establish local agreements,” the delegate representative said. “Now we have to make one.”
Couture acknowledged that the task of negotiating one overall agreement for all support staff working at more than 100 very different establishments is not a simple one for either side of the discussion, but he pointed out that
circumstance and administrative decisions have put everyone this place.
“Our negotiating team decided to make a day today to support the negotiations and to show appreciation to the employees during this period of uncertainty,” the representative said, explaining that the negotiations currently taking place in Sherbrooke are for local issues that will not be negotiated at the provincial level. “These are more structural changes to make work easier for the employees,” he added, explaining that the CUPE represents what is known as Category 2, or general employees. Category 2, according to Couture, takes in everything from maintenance staff to sterilization technicians and pharmacy lab technicians, and represents some 5000 workers across the Townships.
Asked about the concerns of the union, Couture said that mandatory overtime a major issue.
“If they find no one at the end of your shift to replace you, you do have to stay, according to the law,” he said. “That did not happen before.”
The demonstration, held from noon to 1 p.m. was well attended, according to Couture.
“The weather helped,” he said.