Download File
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
anada's public health community health clinics. care system, for These additional health which the labour services, however, will not movement fought so be attained - and, indeed, hard , is · now in serious we may lose existing services danger of being dismantled. - unless Canada's union ' The federal and provincial members join in the fight to governments are steadily save Medicare. reducing their funding for One way to make our health care - · to the point voices heard on this vital Thel>ublie VOL. 5 No. 3 where overcrowded hospi- issue is to sign the attached tals, long waits for opera- petition which will be sent tions, understaffing, and to the Canadian Health other problems threaten the Coalition to be forwarde d accessibility, universality to the appropriate cabinet NEWS MAGAZINE OF THE OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES and quality of Medicare. ministers and MPs. The In addition , the practice C.H .C. is the coalition of of extra billing by doctors , more than 40 progressive CONTENTS together with the imposition organizations (including the of user fees by some provinces, also has Canadian Labour Congress and many affil- Frontlines led to the deterioration of health services iated unions) which is the principal sup- News of CUPE from across the nation . 2 for many Canadians. porter and champion of Medicare. Instead of being reduced , Medicare needs Let's make sure the Canadian Heal th to be expanded and improved. We need Coalition has the signatures of all union "We don't hire people like you!" more preventive rather than curative mea- members when it presents its petition to Human rights legislation doesn't do the job . 6 sures. We need dental , drug , optical and save Medicare to the federal governmen t. prosthetic services included in the Medicare I' system , along with nursing home care, and .. ! The great Canadian productivity myth ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ••••• • i The politicians ' Blarney Stone. 10 Canadian Health Coalition ' We,the undersigned,are opposedto extrabilling, user fees andpremiums ' Peace, Order and "Good " Government as impedingaccess to Medicareservices. Labour has always faced the challenge. 13 Wetherefore urge that these practicesbe abolishedand that the new CanadaHealth Act firmlyre-establish accessibility to insuredhealth services, Diary of a nursing home worker alongwith the otherprinciples of Medicare. Standing up to the Keddys . 16 Name Address -~ Up•Date - Looking back on CUPE . 20 . Th e Public Employee is a newsmagazine published five times each year by the Public CALMC:111H1an Law and order does Relations Department of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, 21 Florence Street, ~E~!:°" Ottawa, Ontario KZP 0W6. Telephone (613) 237-1590. Editor: F red Tabachnick. Associate not guarantee Editors: M arc Bi/anger, Dennis McGarm, Bozica Costigliola, Ed Finn . Lithography by Mutua l Press Ltd., Ottawa. All traditional rights. material may be reprint ed (please credit). Correspondence to this publicatio n is welcome. Postage is paid in cash at third class rate permit number 3040, Return postage is guaranteed. Spring, 1983 The P ublic Employee I (Please return signed petition to: Canad ian Health Coalition , 2841 Riverside Drive, Ottawa , Ont. KIV 8X7.) FRONTLINES Enthusiastic response to organizing drive nets 900 new members by Marilyn Spink Toronto - A month-long organizing blitz by Local 79 has brought union membership to-900part-time employees of seven Metro Toron- to Homes for the Aged. The Ontario Labour Relations Board in April certified the local to represent the employees, who became the largest group of part-timers Digby DistrictSchool Board and membersof the Digby Local of the Canadian Union of Public Employeessigning a new collectiveagreement which in a CUPE bargaining unit. bnngs the Digby CountySchoolBus Stnke to an end. From left to right:Sally LaFleur, Secretary-Treasurer,Jimmie Outhouse, Board Chairman,Bill For many years, Local 79 had represented 1,600 full-time em- Pyle, Inspectorof Schools, Wayne Gates, Acting Presidentof CUPE Local I 185, Dan MacLean, CUPE Representative,and HarrisonJarvis, ployees in the seven homes, along with 5,000 full-time Metro Toronto Secretaryof Local I I 85. and City of Toronto inside workers and the employees of Riverdale Hospital. But the organizing drive couldn't have been launched two years ago, when there was only about one union activist for every Digby school bus strike settled after 31/2years three or four hundred workers in the homes. The local's 1981 and 1982 investigate reports on conditions in the Digby, N.S. -The longest strike in the history of Nova Scotia, and tions, and gradually dissolved the bitter antagonism that had been homes changed all that. Workers realized that the union was working Jeff Rose, President of Local 79, (secondfrom left) and organizersat one of the longest CUPE strikes, ended recently when the Digby built up between the two sides over the previous three years. for them, and they wanted to become more active. Bendale Acres Home for the Aged, celebratereceipt of certificateto School Board signed a contract with Local 1185, whose 25 school bus "It was a long and very, very bitter strike," he said, "but I hope "Now we've got union reps in every department in each home, 54 represent900 part-time workersin Metro TorontoHomes for the Aged. drivers had been on strike since Sept. 5, 1979. that the good relationship that has now been restored will prevail in of them altogether," said Muriel Collins, chairperson of Local 79's Of the original 25 drivers, 14 will return to work. The others have future negotiations." Committee on the Homes. "I was confident we could organize the retired or found other jobs, and one died. The old school board refused to negotiate, forced the drivers to part-timers because they're badly treated and desperately in need of Rose said that the overwhelming response from the part-timers Regional Director Manning McIntyre said the new contract, which strike, and then hired strikebreakers and paid them more than the union representation.'' proves that, despite all the anti-union propaganda these days, and in is retroactive to Jan. 1, 1983, will bring the drivers' monthly wage to Local 1185 members had been getting. The part-time attendants, registered nurses, cleaners, kitchen staff spite of wage controls, workers are not being fooled. $954. That's still $100 less than drivers in adjoining school districts, and clerical workers - 75 per cent of them women- were getting the "They know a union can work for them," he said. "And they've but it narrows the gap of $300 that existed when the strike began. union minimum hourly rates, but received no benefits and had no seen Local 79's efforts to improve conditions in the homes. They McIntyre said the key to the settlement was the formation of an Local launches drive guarantee of hours of work. Without job security, even those with know the union cares about the residents, as well as the employees." expanded school board last fall in accordance with legislation amalga- many years of service could be dismissed arbitrarily. Negotiations for a first collective agreement for the part-time mating school boards across the province. In the elections for a new to fight legal aid cuts Quietly, Local 79 set up an organizing committee of the reps in employees were scheduled to begin later in the spring. board of trustees, former board chairman Richard Daley, who led the each home. Preparations for the organizing drive were kept secret, attack on Local 1185, was defeated. Saskatoon - Members of and the poor who rely on the because of the fear that, if Metro found out, many part-timers would McIntyre said negotiations were resumed quietly after the elec- Local 1949 who staff the legal clinics for legal aid in both crim- not be called in to work. aid clinics in Saskatchewan have inal and civil matters . After lists of the part-timers' names and addresses were compiled, launched a campaign to avert Native and women's groups the sign-up campaign began when the 54 reps handed out personal Montreal bus drivers Six CUPE members proposed cuts in the clinics' have also protested the Attor- letters to the part-timers on duty. The letter was an invitation to sign a budget by the provincial gov- ney-General's proposed cuts, union card, and attached to it was a "Join Us" pamphlet assuring the vote to join CUPE attend Labour College ernment. which could result in the closing workers that they had the legal right to join a union . Attorney-General Gary Lane of some clinics and the layoff of "That first day was absolutely thrilling," said a Greenacres Home Montreal - CUPE's mem- The meeting, attended by Six CUPE members have been awarded the third CUPE schol- announced plans to cut the many staff members. rep. "I went in though I wasn't on duty, and gave out my letters bership recently jumped by more than 3,000 members, re- awarded scholarships to attend arship valued at $3,500. Lesley clincs' funding by more than $1 Local 1949 has appointed a during the breaks. The part-timers crowded around me. They were another 4,200 when the union sulted in a 52% vote in favour of the 1983 eight-week residential Taylor, Local 38, Calgary, will million after a controversial fightback coordinator - Kevin so happy we were doing it." representing Montreal Transit joining CUPE. program at the Labour College be financed by a scholarship legal aid report by Judge M. A. Glass, a para-legal from the Another rep, a porter at Castleview-Wychwood, was off duty that Commission bus drivers voted of Canada, starting May 1. provided by the Alberta Dept. MacPherson. Prince Albert clinic- to mobil- weekend, too. He said he would drop in for an hour Saturday morn- for CUPE affiliation.