HAMILTON -- Staff of the Community Care Access Centre
(Hamilton-Wentworth) could be on strike in early October if contract
talks do not produce a settlement before then.
The 200 staff at the CCAC have voted 91 per cent in favour of
strike action if necessary. As with nurses at the Hamilton-Wentworth
Victorian Order of Nurses, who went on strike Aug. 31, loss of staff
due to low wages is a major issue.
“We’ve lost 28 case managers in the last 18 months,” said Pam
Clark, president of Local 274 of the Ontario Public Service Employees
Union. “We train staff, and then they leave. Either they move to a
hospital, or they move to Brant, Niagara, Halton, or Peel. Our maximum
rate of pay here is the minimum rate of pay in the suburbs.
“The only way we can hope to provide quality home care right
across the system is if we get more money to pay community health care
workers - nurses, homemakers, therapists, and case managers - and to
keep the system running.”
The majority of staff in Local 274 are nurses and other health
professionals working as case managers and placement coordinators.
“We see ourselves as advocates for clients,” said Clark. “All
of us are frustrated on a daily basis by the shortage of nurses and
other home-care staff. People in need are not getting all the care
they deserve, and it’s all on account of underfunding.”
Talks between the union and the CCAC resume Sept. 21.
- 30 -
For more information:
