Health care workers in Canada have borne crushing burdens during the COVID-19 pandemic and, in the province of Ontario, they are demanding change. Three unions representing 175,000 healthcare workers held a virtual news conference and employees turned up at hospitals, nursing homes and retirement homes wearing stickers and signs that read: “Respect Us. Protect Us. Pay Us.”
COVID-19 rampaged through long term care homes in Canada, many of which were already short-staffed and crowded. There were cases where residents were neglected to the point that if they didn’t die of coronavirus infection, they died of thirst. In some homes, the army or hospital staff were called in and found appalling circumstances. By May 25, 2020, more than 80 per cent of the coronavirus deaths in Canada had occurred in long term care homes and retirement homes.
Most of Ontario’s health care workers are women working in hospitals, retirement facilities and nursing homes. (OCHU-CUPE)
Full-time work a necessity, say unions
One of the problems is that facilities often hire employees on a part-time basis only, to avoid paying benefits and sick leave. This means that employees must work in several facilities to make ends meet. This increased their exposure to the virus and their chances of spreading it from place to place.
The unions and workers in Ontario are demanding that these jobs be turned into full-time employment with benefits. They want paid sick leave for illnesses related to COVID-19 and while they wait for test results and are in isolation.
Workers were unable to get PPE
The employees want guarantees they will get personal protective equipment (PPE) and unions have noted cases where staff were entitled to N95 masks but could not get them from their employers.
Where there were initial pay bonuses of $4 per hour in the early stages of the pandemic, employees want that to be permanent. Many health care workers make only the province’s minimum wage of $14.25 an hour.
Workers at St. Mary’s Hospital in Kitchener wore stickers to send a message to the government of Ontario. (Unifor)
‘Lack of respect…painfully evident’
The action was taken on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2021, specifically because health care workers in Ontario are overwhelmingly female.
“The lack of respect for care work has become painfully evident during COVID-19 but it stems from a longstanding failure to recognize the value of this work simply because women are performing it,” said Katha Fortier, Assistant to the National President, Unifor union. “This is evidenced by workers in health and long-term care who are often precariously employed and not paid a living wage. Full-time work with benefits is rarely available and they are forced to work at multiple jobs to simply survive.”
Sharon Richer of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions decried the lack of access to PPE. “Nearly 20,000 health care workers have contracted COVID-19 at work and 20 have died,” she said. “Although health care staff were entitled to an N95 mask they couldn’t get one from their employers. They were told that this wasn’t necessary. The masks are under lock and key. This must change. This valuable female workforce deserves respect, protection and better pay. Mandating the N95 mask, as Quebec has done and $4.00 an hour in the form of pandemic pay would be strong gestures of appreciation by the Ontario provincial government.”
The public awareness campaign was organized by three unions–SEIU Healthcare, Unifor, and CUPE.
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