Dear CUPE Ontario Health atHome members,
Here is your November update.
Don’t forget to complete the CUPE province wide survey about restructuring, workload, job security and the return to office policy! Due Friday, November 15
If you haven’t already, please fill out the Ontario Health atHome 2024 survey! If you have already completed the survey, please ask your co-workers to take a few minutes to do the same.
The survey will provide a comprehensive province wide understanding of the issues members are facing with the return to office plans, job security and staffing and workload issues. The information gathered will be used to create a report that will be shared with your locals and used to advocate together for improvements to these issues!
The survey link is available here as well as the Ontario Health at Home website: https://oh-home.cupe.ca/
PLSRTA Update
Last month your Employer filed for PSLRTA, setting in motion the legal process that is likely to lead to union representation votes next year. To recap, the Employer’s position is that worker representation at Ontario Health atHome should be two province wide bargaining units – one for professional employees and the other for office, clerical and technical employees. Unfortunately, the employer is taking the position that several classifications that are unionized in some of the Collective Agreements and not all should be excluded from the union. This is egregious and CUPE will continue to oppose all exclusions of any and all classifications that are unionized. All workers deserve the right to negotiate collectively to improve wages, benefits and working conditions.
CUPE responded to the Employer’s PSLRTA application at the end of October, outlining our opposition to the exclusion of any positions from the union.
As a reminder, your collective agreement and the rights contained within it remain in place and you should continue to enforce your collective agreements.
As always, we will continue to update you as we learn new information about the restructuring and PSLRTA process.
Member Organizer Training
Last week a group of members from each of the Ontario Health atHome locals came together for member organizer training. The training focused on building worker power to win the PSLRTA representation votes and move on to negotiate a strong first contract with Ontario Health atHome.
It was a success! All member organizers worked hard to create a step-by-step plan to reach out to all members in every CUPE Ontario Health atHome bargaining unit and encourage members to take the next step and complete the survey. The first step of organizing plan to build worker power is to make sure a majority of CUPE Ontario Health atHome members fill out the survey! If you would like to get involved with the campaign and join a local phone bank, please contact your local representatives and Brett Geneau, CUPE Ontario Health atHome representative on the CUPE Ontario HCWC, member of CUPE Local 503 and member organizer at: bgeneau@cupe503.com
Supply Issue
At the last restructuring committee meeting, members from almost all CUPE Ontario Health atHome locals reported medical supply disruptions. Members reported dealing with a slew of issues related to the supply disruptions, adding more work to their already high workloads. The media picked up on this issue quickly and interviewed Ontario Health atHome clients who said they’d had to order their own medical supplies. One member reported that palliative care patients were being told to move from their homes to a hospital because they weren’t given the appropriate medical supplies.
This is absolutely unacceptable and is a direct result of the Ford government’s inept preparation for the restructuring of HCCSS into Ontario Health at Home and privatization of medical supply distribution. If you have directly dealt with medical supply disruption issues, please include them in the survey!
You can read about this issue in more detail here.
CUPE Home Care in the News
Last month an op-ed was published in the Toronto Star on behalf of CUPE Home Care leader Connie Ndlovu, outlining the immense issues in Ontario home care.
You can read the first section of the article here:
Ontario MPP Caroline Mulroney who is president of the Treasury Board is messing up wage compensation for the least powerful public sector workers. The main victims? Women workers, racialized workers, and precarious workers.
The Ford government used Bill 124 to suppress the wages of the 1.2 million mostly female broader public sector workers, including nurses, teachers and hospital workers. Unions fought back and the court of appeal found that policy unconstitutional.
But now chaos reigns. Some workers have been able to go back to the bargaining table and win reasonable increases to make up for the three-year Bill 124 period. But others, in sectors where there is low union density or weak political power, have received little.
Home care is a case in point. Even before Bill 124, wages and working conditions were far below those in hospitals and long-term-care homes. Few home-care workers are even scheduled to work full-time. Increasing the gap will make community health care less attractive.
Click this to read the rest of the article: Ford government is sabotaging its own home-care reforms
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