CUPE workers deliver a message to MPP Scott
Members seeking ‘fair wage increase’
Kawartha Lakes home and community health-care workers have appealed to MPP Laurie Scott to urge the province to return to the bargaining table and negotiate a fair wage increase.
The group met in front of Scott’s office Friday to submit a petition, signed by more than 75 per cent of CUPE Local 3313 Campbellford, Haliburton, Lindsay & Port Hope branch members.
Home and Community Care Support Service workers include nurses, personal support workers, information technology and administrative support, occupational therapists and physiotherapists.
In 2019, the government passed Bill 124, capping salary increases for public sector workers — including health-care workers — at one per cent per year for three years. The move faced criticism from workers who argued that it limited their ability to negotiate fair wages that kept up with the cost of living.
Earlier this year, the province repealed Bill 124 after the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled the legislation unconstitutional.
However, bargaining has failed to yield acceptable results. CUPE members held a rally in front of the Ontario Treasury Board in response to the province’s “insulting ” offer in January. The petition, said CUPE Local 3313 vice-president Lorna Shipley, is “another stage” in the process of efforts to secure a living wage.
“Our members are struggling to make ends meet, while the cost of living keeps going up,” said Shipley who works in Lindsay. “The provincial government has used unlawful legislation to prevent us from bargaining for a fair wage increase to keep up with inflation and rising costs, and to prevent us from taking collective action to obtain the wages we deserve.”
The governance of home and community care in Ontario has undergone numerous shifts over the past three decades.
In 1996, 43 Community Care Access Centres were created to manage competitive procurement for home and community care providers. A decade later, these were amalgamated to align with the 14 new Local Health Integration Networks that assumed responsibility for funding and planning local health services.
In 2017, the CCACs were dissolved, and their functions transferred directly to LHINs. Later this year, the services will be transferred yet again to Ontario Health Teams.
“Our members are stressed over the potential impact this could have,” said Shipley, citing the main concern being a repeat of the job losses that occurred with the LHIN transition in 2007.
Shipley added another is the potential impact on communities.
“Our members are the ones who oversee nurses and PSWs going into people’s homes to ensure their needs are being met … Everybody would rather have their loved ones at home rather than in the hospital or long-term care,” said Shipley. “Fewer workers means longer wait times in a system that’s already struggling.”
The delivery of petitions — specifically to Progressive Conservative MPPs — is the second of eight actions held across the province by CUPE home and community care members.
CUPE heads to the bargaining table again on May 24.