Death of front-line care gets spotlight at rally
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/08/2017 (3244 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The ghost of front-line health-care workers held her own tombstone in front of St. Boniface Hospital on Thursday.
“RIP I was a Frontline Healthcare Job,” it read.
Although the female ghost wouldn’t speak, she was one of dozens of union members, hospital workers and others who gathered in front of the hospital over the lunch hour in protest of the overhaul to health-care delivery in Winnipeg.
“It’s very, very stressful,” Nellie Minville, a staff scheduler at St. Boniface, said about the atmosphere at the hospital.
“People are worried. They’re worried they’re going to get bumped, they’re worried about losing their jobs, they’re worried about the rotation changes, all kinds of things.”
While the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority has made it clear no employees have received pink slips yet, unions have been receiving notices, per their collective agreements, that change is coming — and soon.
“The problem we have with all of these cuts is we get notified there are cuts that are going to take place, but we don’t get any details,” said Jeff Traeger, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, local 832, which represents 1,500 of the hospital’s support workers and organized the rally.
“The government’s just not giving out many details and it’s one of the things we’re concerned about. It seems like there isn’t a plan.”
Minville said she thinks the government needs to slow down the overhaul and engage more with unions on possible alternatives to the plan, which includes the closure of half of the city’s emergency departments.
“They’re not really listening, (it feels like) they’ve made their decisions on what they’re going to do without a lot of thought,” she said.
About 200 people crowded Tache Avenue, waving union flags and alternating between yelling “shame on the cuts” and “shame on Pallister,” to the tune of repeated car horns.
Several more protests have been planned for September during the lead up to the first phase of the overhaul.
The Victoria General Hospital ER and the Misericordia Urgent Care Centre are scheduled to shut their doors on Oct. 3.
jane.gerster@freepress.mb.ca