Homecare agency must respect workers and bargain in good faith so we can end "Hallway Healthcare"
RICHMOND HILL, ON, Feb. 19, 2019 /CNW/ -
Statement from SEIU Healthcare President Sharleen Stewart:
"CarePartners is making the Ontario government's stated goal of ending hospital overcrowding impossible. It's clear to everyone, except the executives at CarePartners, the need to respect homecare workers and the need to make those frontline jobs, good paying jobs. The same executives who have mismanaged their publicly-funded private business are now worsening the recruitment and retention crisis they've created.
"Late last week the SEIU Healthcare bargaining team met for a second time with the CarePartners bargaining team represented by Bass Associates Ltd. The contract proposal the business executives presented was an ugly attempt to further exploit their personal support workers, who are already struggling to make ends meet and often sent into dangerous working conditions.
"Our union members have been working on the frontline for decades and they know ending hallway healthcare means investing in the caring homecare professionals, like PSWs, who support people with disabilities and aging Canadians.
"Unfortunately, the homecare agency does not know this. The CarePartners executives are stuck in the past and stuck in their corporate boardrooms. CarePartners have re-created the alarming conditions that led to the December 2013 homecare strike.
"We call on the CarePartners executive team to come back to the bargaining table with a proposal that provides for a living wage and to remedy the unsafe working conditions they have let go unresolved. Failure to do so will further destabilize the homecare sector and put frontline workers and their vulnerable clients at risk."
To learn more about SEIU Healthcare's current negotiations with CarePartners and how you can support Ontario's personal support workers, visit www.stuckinthepast.ca
ABOUT SEIU HEALTHCARE
SEIU Healthcare represents more than 60,000 healthcare and community service workers across Ontario. The union's members work in hospitals, homecare, nursing and retirement homes, and community services throughout the province. SEIU Healthcare is the largest voice of Ontario's unionized homecare workers and we represent CarePartners' employees at the bargaining table. In 2014, SEIU Healthcare's advocacy led to a $4 per hour increase to the minimum wage for all publicly-funded PSWs. www.seiuhealthcare.ca.
SOURCE SEIU Healthcare
For media inquiries, contact: Corey Johnson, Head of Strategic Communications, SEIU Healthcare, 416-529-8909, [email protected]
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