On Wednesday morning, leaders of the Ontario Nurses Association (ONA), the Ontario Public Service Employees Union and the Canadian Union of Public Employees called on the government to Ontario to prioritize home and community care workers and the services they provide across the province.
Erin Ariss, Registered Nurse and ONA Provincial President, JP Hornick, President of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) and Fred Hahn, President of CUPE Ontario, converged on the Assembly Legislative Assembly of Ontario to express their concerns regarding a new restructuring of Home and Community Support Services (HCSS) by the Progressive Conservative government.
“We cannot stand idly by while Doug Ford and his government brazenly destroy another sector of Ontario’s health care system. As front-line workers, we clearly see the dangers of Bill 135 and the devastating consequences it will have. Our home care workers do very important work on the front lines, caring for Ontarians, and deserve to be treated with respect by this government. Yet the Ford government is once again wreaking havoc on our industry, harming the people who need it, our patients and customers.” – Erin Ariss, registered nurse and ONA provincial president
Under Convenient Home Care Delivery Bill 135, SSDMC’s 14 agencies will be merged into a single shared services organization at the end of June. ONA, OPSEU and CUPE leaders say this restructuring will be carried out without consulting the front-line workers who provide these services. In their opinion, it risks further destabilizing the home care sector, since workers and people who use these services will receive even less support.
Home care workers provide care to more than 400,000 people in Ontario each month. SSDMC staff includes nurses, personal support workers, occupational therapists and physiotherapists, and other health professionals who are committed to providing the care that Ontarians need. need. It triages patients leaving hospital and ensures they receive appropriate care at home, freeing up thousands of much-needed hospital beds across the province .
“These relentless efforts to privatize our health care system are destabilizing the structures that were put in place to ensure the health and safety of the public, in an effort to satisfy insatiable corporate greed. Who is the latest victim of Sylvia Jones and Doug Ford’s profit-maximizing plan? Home care, an essential part of the health care services needed by many Ontarians. Prioritizing profits over patient care is a terrible idea. This approach is doomed to failure. Patients and healthcare providers know this, and deserve better. – JP Hornick, President of OPSEU
According to the unions, in its current form, Bill 135 will increase job insecurity, accelerate privatization and generate more profits, since it will open the way to a large number of conflicts of interest.
“The Progressive Conservative government and the Convenient Home Care Act will further destabilize an already broken system. Bill 135 perpetuates fundamental problems in the health care sector and increases uncertainty for home care workers. For years, CUPE and community health care sector stakeholders have called for a well-integrated, fully public health care system, in which all workers receive wages and benefit from working conditions. fair work. These changes will further undermine and destabilize a home care system already under enormous pressure. We must strengthen community and home health care. They must not be dismantled. » – Fred Hahn, President of CUPE Ontario
For years, unions representing SSDMC staff and allied organizations have been calling on the Ontario government to implement a fully public, well-integrated and fully supported home care system.
ONA, OPSEU and CUPE leaders stand united and will continue to work together to advocate for home care workers and those who need their services across the province.
