FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August
28, 2000
Health ministry
created home care crisis – OPSEU
TORONTO – Ontario Public Service Employees Union President Leah
Casselman has written Health Minister Elizabeth Witmer, urging her to
accept responsibility for a looming strike of home care workers in
Hamilton-Wentworth.
"My members who work for the Victorian Order of Nurses
providing home care in that community, are of the verge of a
strike," Casselman wrote the minister.
"It is a difficult decision they have taken, because they are
convinced that the system of providing community care is failing their
clients and their community.
"You have created Community Care Access Centres and then
relentlessly underfunded them. You have told them to manage on a
shoestring. For-profit service providers are coming into the system by
underbidding the professional non-profit providers. They cut costs by
cutting the quality of service and the experience of their staff.
Vulnerable citizens bear the cost," Casselman wrote.
She urged Witmer "to recognize the problems you have created
and move to correct them. This is not a strike against an excellent
non-profit community agency that has a proud track record of service
across Canada. This is a strike against a policy that denies dedicated
professional care givers decent financial rewards for hard and very
important work.
"I am disappointed at the minimal representation of front-line
workers included in your recently-announced review of the work of
CCACs. These people are the one constant in the provision of services,
particularly during a period of significant change. Patients come in
and out of care, and the administrative system is in flux. The people
who see what is really happening are the nurses and aides on the front
lines, and they have been virtually frozen out of the review. OPSEU
and the members it represents would have been very pleased to
participate.
"While the immediate crisis is looming in Hamilton, the
problem is province-wide. I urge you to accept the responsibility and
commit appropriate funding to the CCACs so they truly can administer
quality home care for the citizens of this province."
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For further information:
Katie FitzRandolph (OPSEU Communications) (416) 448-7440; cell (416)561-5651; e-mail: kfitzrandolph@opseu.org
Leah Casselman (OPSEU President) (416) 443-8888 Ext. 300
