Almost 3,000 CCAC (Community Care Access Centre) Health Professionals in Ontario, including 59 in the North Bay area, are on strike this morning.
“We’re asking for equal pay with nurses in all the other ONA situations (Ontario Nurses Association) like hospitals. We don’t want to be considered second-class nurses anymore,” local strike Coordinator Jennifer Hunt told BayToday.
ONA President Linda Haslam-Stroud, in a news release said, “CCAC Ontario Nurses’ Association Bargaining Units have been seeking very small wage increases equal to the percentages given to the other 57,000 members of ONA in the hospital, public health and long-term care sectors. The CCAC members had a two-year wage freeze in their last contract, which expired March 31, 2014. Nine of the 10 Bargaining Units have voted to strike.”
While there are 59 members affected locally, they are part of almost 300 across the northeast region working out of branches in North Bay, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins and Parry Sound.
It is one of 10 CCAC’s across the province.
“The northeast had negotiations in early December and every single negotiation went straight to mediation, so nothing was settled at all,” said Hunt.
“Nothing was settled at mediation last week either. Our employer walked away. There was no negotiation whatsoever.”
Hunt says it’s not just the money, but fairness.
“With every bed closure, and staff cuts at hospitals, that pressure directly affects us.
“We’ve been struggling with increasing workload and pressure, but we’ve been silent. We just keep on takin’ it and takin’ it and our union position is we’re not going to settle for lump sums and wage freezes anymore.”
Hospital nurses aren’t part of the strike. Hospital employees are classified as essential workers and do not have the legal right to strike under existing legislation.
Nurses that come into the patient’s home are not striking, but there won’t be anyone putting the services in place.
“We are the direct link to any and all home care,” explained Hunt. “Anyone receiving any type of health care like a nurse that goes in to do a dressing or placement to long-term care home, or services for kids in schools. Any kind of home care goes through CCAC first and it’s the nurses that work there that organize that care for them.”
Very often when a patient is discharged from a hospital they are referred to CCAC to arrange home care.
“It’s happening more and more, the pressure is building. The people are being discharged early, there’s not as many beds. The pressure for good quality home care is just mounting and we’re buckling under that weight,” said Hunt.
“It’s been a real uphill battle. Our members aren’t typically faced with taking job action. Our employer has not made it easy for us."
CCAC Sudbury spokesperson Sandy Campbell says existing CCAC clients will see little or no disruption to their services.
"Those are folks that are receiving nursing and personal support and therapy services through one of our contracted service providers. They are not affected by the labour disruption.
"Where you'll see delays is if you are a new patient being referred. You might see a delay in getting your assessment done."
Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins, in a news release stated,"We hope that the parties can come to a resolution. We understand that the CCACs have developed contingency plans and are working with all of their partners to ensure patients continue to receive the care they need.
In each of the last two years, we increased funding for CCACs by 5 per cent and this year and we are providing the home and community care sector with an additional $270 million. Even with these increases, we have asked our public sector partners, including employers and bargaining agents, to work together to control costs so that we can continue to invest in expanding access to services for Ontario families and patients."
The CCAC’s across the province served 700,000 clients last year.
For more information see: http://www.ona.org/
