Community Care workers strike in
Hamilton-Wentworth
HAMILTON - The 200 staff at the Hamilton-Wentworth Community Care
Access Centre (CCAC) have gone on strike to support the contract
demands put forward by their union bargaining team.
The staff are case managers and placement coordinators - nurses,
social workers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists,
dietitians - and support staff who coordinate the in-home care of
about 10,000 patients per day in the Hamilton-Wentworth region.
The main issues in the strike are benefits, workload, and wage
parity with workers at CCACs in the surrounding area, said Pam
Clark, president of Local 274 of the Ontario Public Service
Employees Union.
“Pay rates at the CCAC here are so low that the agency is
continually losing staff to other CCACs in the region,” said
Clark. “In the last 18 months, 32 of our case managers have gone
on to better jobs in Brant, Halton, Niagara, and Peel. The fact that
we’re underpaid is rapidly undermining the quality of service the
CCAC can provide.”
CCAC staff visit patients at home, in hospital, at school, at
work, in clinics, long-term care facilities, boarding homes,
hostels, and even on the street. They coordinate home care for
acutely ill and dying patients, stroke, heart, cancer, kidney, and
brain-injured patients, people with disabilities, the chronically
ill, and the elderly.
“When we’re not at work, the coordination of all these
services stops,” said Clark. “There will be backlogs of patients
in hospitals because without home care they won’t be able to go
home. Placement into long-term care facilities will slow down to a
crawl.
“We don’t want to be on strike,” said Clark, “but if
somebody doesn’t stand up for the quality of home care in this
community, it will never improve.”
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For more information: Pam Clark (905) 630-0362
Pat Riddle (416) 568-5820
