Tuesday, March 10, 2015

This Day In Clarkland...In Which Some Workers Are More Equal Than Others.

SomeFamiliesReallyAndTruly
LastVille


Last week our say anything Premier appeared to reverse course and come out in favour of the right of workers in the building trades to organize.

As for folks working in care homes?

Not so much.

And not since 2003.

Paul Willcocks explains:

...(U)nionized employees outside the health and social services sectors have the right to appeal to the labour board if they believe that the decision to contract out, or change contractors, is aimed at getting rid of the union. The board can impose remedies, and the union certification and collective agreement can be forced on the new contractor.

That changed for health and social service employees after 2003, when the Liberal government used legislation to remove prohibitions on contracting out from their collective agreements. The legislation also said the labour code sections on successor rights would not apply to these groups of employees...



Gosh.


Ms. Clark was still a part of the Campbell government in 2003 before she took that extended talk show host-assisted holiday that had nothing whatsoever to do with BC Rail wasn't she?

Sure she was.

In fact, back then she was basking in the glory of helping to strip teachers of their bargaining rights.

You know, that little thing that the courts are telling us is going to take a retroactive billion dollars or so to fix.

Sheesh.


________
The really, really crummy thing about this shafting of care home workers is that if they try to fix the situation by organizing the contractor can just cancel out and everybody gets fired. The care home syndicate can then bring in a new contractor that hires the workers who are not trouble makers back, often with a loss of seniority, etc...Mr. Willcocks has that story too.


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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stop the press
site c

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/head-of-review-panel-repeats-call-for-delay-to-bc-hydros-site-c/article23399470/

Anonymous said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeET7Z1ZGlw

cfvua said...

Seems like all there is to do is put out a list of these non worker friendly companies and not allow one penny of our parents' hard earned savings to hit their greedy hands. Any company scared to bargain in good faith with its employees probably shouldn't be looking after any ones loved ones. Period.

Anonymous said...

SH

File this under penny-wise pound foolish:

The handful of supported living residences I looked at for my senior parent did not, to my surprise, have a first aid attendant/responder onsite for any emergencies residents might have. Apparently this is the "standard" elsewhere.

Surprised too, that this is not mandated by the health regions, as immediate care can lesson the impact of an emerging health crisis, reduce hospital stays and in the case of strokes etc reduce the devastation of said health crisis.

The best you can do is make sure the senior's residence is close to emergency care. Sadly, in many small towns the ambulance may be attending another emergency or are stalled at the emergency department.

First aid attendants are required at public gatherings and work places but not where our most fragile live? Guess that's because caregivers and their parents are often overwhelmed. The government depends on that to withhold services and keep low skilled care aids from gaining skills which would increase their pay, enrich their sense of purpose at work, and most of all give a someone the best chance they can have in a medical crisis.

Anonymous said...

" keep low skilled care aids"
Disgusting comment!! Care Aides are not low skilled.
These are the men and women who are on the front line caring for our loved ones. They are the ones who hold their hands when they take their last breath, because family cannot be bothered to show up. Care aides are the people who wash and bathe our elderly because they are unable to care for themselves. Who help feed them, listen to them when no one else will, learn to recognize medical crises and a multitude of other "low skilled" tasks daily. to do all of this daily requires high levels of competence and skill through courses on anatomy, palliative care, first aid, dealing with violent patients, confrontation.. the list goes on. Before calling care aides "low skilled" go spend a day in their shoes. But then ignorance is bliss. OH BTW, I am not a care aide

Anonymous said...

SH @ 7:28

Please read my comments again, I was referring to care aides in "supported living" situations, which are a world away from the kind of hospital care you are referring to. In "supported" living seniors and other-abled, are largely independent: bathe themselves, can have a kettle, toaster, microwave...drive, do laundry etc.

The lack of beds in "assisted" living facilities is precisely why critical hospital beds are taken by people who are not in need of "acute" care. Furthermore, "supported" living facilities are taking in the over-flow of seniors who have lost their independence - community nurses attend these patients.

Believe me, the ambulance is a frequent visit at my parent's residence. If someone was left to die in my parent's facility there would be a full public inquiry and media outcry.


e.a.f. said...

The reason we have so many children living in poverty in B.C, the highest in Canada for the past 13 years or so, is because their parents can't earn enough to get above the poverty line.

So when they reduce the parents wages, the government in effect is increasing the poverty of children. That is going to cost society a lot more than a few dollars they will save in lowering wages.

I guess what Christy meant by, families first, was families first in the poverty line. More child poverty brought to you by the "sparkle pony" princess, pretending to be a premier.