CUPE calls on Shandro to deliver promised wages to staff at seniors’ homes

CALGARY – Six weeks after promising a $2/hour raise for health care aides, those workers are wondering if they will ever see the wages promised by Health Minister Tyler Shandro.

CUPE Alberta President Rory Gill says BC, Ontario and Quebec responded to COVID-19 by delivering wage increases of $4/hour or more to staff, but notes Alberta can’t get it together to give smaller amounts to fewer workers.

“This minister is incompetent,” says Gill. “Even with Ottawa providing funding for wage increases, they can’t figure out how to deliver the money.”

Gill says higher wages are needed to recruit more workers to support Alberta seniors. Earlier this week, health officials promised workers would see an increase on paycheques today. Gill says that’s not happening.

“The government is either lying or misinformed about wage top-ups. They will not be delivered today as promised.”

“It took BC two weeks to organize a provincial wage grid to deal with COVID-19. Two months on, Tyler Shandro is still sputtering,” says Gill. “He truly is the worst health minister in Alberta history.”

CALGARY — A union representing 5,000 health care workers says the Kenney government has failed to address problems in long term care and meat packing. According to the Canadian Union of Public Employees, this failure is the reason Calgary cannot reopen with the rest of Alberta.

“Calgary is still closed because the UCP would not talk to front line workers about safety issues,” said Rory Gill, President of CUPE Alberta. “The biggest COVID outbreaks are in meat packing and long term care, because they messed up both files.”

On April 3, Gill wrote to Health Minister Tyler Shandro with detailed suggestions about how to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks in long term care.  Gill urged Shandro to put single site staffing rules in place.

“The province of BC put single site staffing rules in place in about two weeks,” said Gill. “Two months into a pandemic, we are still waiting on the Alberta government to figure it out.”

“The Kenney government doesn’t get why we are still seeing outbreaks in long term care centers,” said Gill. “We need more staff, and better safety procedures.”

Gill says the UCP still can’t figure out what it is doing with wages in the sector. On April 10, the minister stated there would be a $2/hour raise for one classification of employee. “Over one month past that announcement, and no one has received a dime. How do you recruit more workers if you don’t pay them enough?”

“In Ontario, the Ford government gave a $4/hour increase for all long term care workers, including housekeeping and dietary aides. “Ford did that weeks ago,” said Gill. “What’s taking Kenney so long?”

Students deserve Educational Assistants, not hold times

EDMONTON – A help line launched today for parents and students is a sad and insulting replacement for the 8000 educational assistants who were helping kids adapt to learning in a quarantine.

CUPE Alberta President Rory Gill called Education Minister Adriana LaGrange ‘clueless’ if she thinks a help line is going to replace trained staff she sacked on May 1^st.

“An educational assistant has a handful of students. They work with individual teachers on the lesson plans and implements them according to the individual needs of the student” said Gill. “Replacing that person with a help line, where someone new answers the phone each time, someone who doesn’t know the student, the lesson, the teacher or the plan, is a joke”.

“Adriana LaGrange and Jason Kenney took resources away from Alberta’s most vulnerable special needs students” said Gill. “They left them floundering and vulnerable. This help line is no help.”

“Alberta’s special needs students and their parents deserve real resources, not hold times.”

Letter to Keyano College staff confirms government isn’t coughing up

WOOD BUFFALO – Keyano College is proceeding with cuts to the Northern Living Allowance to employees after failing to receive confirmation that the Alberta government will fund it beyond June 2020.

A letter from the college to employees confirms that the monthly allowance of $1,040 per person will be taken off the pay packages of employees in July.  Keyano employees are the second group after childcare workers to lose the monthly benefit since the Kenney government was elected.

CUPE Alberta President Rory Gill said he was worried other Fort McMurray residents would soon lose the benefit.

“First it was childcare workers, then Keyano employees, I’m worried municipal workers, healthcare workers, firefighters and others will lose it next,” said Gill.

“Jason Kenney promised to support oil and gas communities,” said Gill. “By defunding the allowance, after everything Fort McMurray has been through, is a slap in the face to a city that is still struggling.”

Started during boom times, the allowance assisted Wood Buffalo residents with the high cost of living. Gill said that the allowance now serves a different purpose.

“With the fire, the economic downturn, the crash in oil prices, and the COVID-19 crisis, Fort McMurray residents need help more than ever,” said Gill.

“The living allowance is a lifeline. Don’t cut it.

Union calls on Kenney government to restore services to students

EDMONTON – As school districts across Alberta begin letting go of support staff, their union says that because of cutbacks by the Kenney government, many staff will not return in the fall.

“When students return to school in September, there will be fewer staff dealing with more kids,” said CUPE Alberta President Rory Gill. “Special needs kids will have to make do with less support as they re-adjust to in class learning.”

Gill said promises to bring back laid off workers after the pandemic “are false and misleading.” Gill noted that because of cuts in the March budget, most districts are not going to be able to bring back staff.

“Today, Edmonton Public Schools will lay off over 2,100 support staff,” said Gill. “But we know that district has to cut $90 million from its funding in September. “Depending on a few variables, between 600-800 support staff will not return.”

“When Jason Kenney and Adriana LaGrange say the layoffs are temporary and due to COVID, they are lying. Again.”

Gill said that over 7,500 school support staff have been given notice of layoff with many districts still to announce their numbers. Most layoffs will happen on May 1st. Another 6,000 substitute teachers will also be dismissed.

“The damage this is doing to the current generation of students cannot be calculated,” said Gill. “One year ago, Jason Kenney promised he wouldn’t cut education. But instead he’s picking on the youngest and most vulnerable of our population to pay for his $4.7 billion tax cut to profitable corporations.”

FORT MCMURRAY – Provincial funding cuts are forcing Keyano College to cancel the northern living allowance of over $1,000 per month to its staff.

At a meeting this evening, Keyano College board members reported that the Alberta government has still not funded the Northern Allowance for 2019-20, nor have they committed to funding it for the fiscal year that started on April 1, 2020. Because of the lack of commitment from the Kenney government, the board cannot offer the allowance to employees. Board members discussed but did not approve actions to address the cut.

Similar cuts were made last month to childcare workers in the city.

About 140 Keyano College employees belong to the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

CUPE Alberta President Rory Gill called on the Alberta government to reverse the decision.

“Jason Kenney promised to support oil and gas communities,” said Gill. “By defunding the allowance, after everything Fort McMurray has been through, it is clear Kenney’s commitment was a lie.”

Started during boom times, the allowance assisted Wood Buffalo residents with the high cost of living. Gill said that the allowance now serves a different purpose.

“With the fire, the economic downturn, the crash in oil prices, and the COVID crisis, Fort McMurray residents need help more than ever,” said Gill.

Gill says he expects other city residents will soon lose their access to the allowance.

“The living allowance is a lifeline. Don’t cut it.”

CALGARY – One fifth of the staff at McKenzie Town Care Centre have tested positive for COVID-19, a situation that has their union calling for big changes to the way the province handles staffing in the long-term care sector.

CUPE Alberta President Rory Gill wrote to Health Minister Tyler Shandro suggesting detailed measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Gill’s letter said current rules allowing workers to move from facility to facility, while still leaving most seniors’ facilities dangerously short staffed, were not sufficient.

“The absence of a fifth of the employees is life-threatening for residents,” wrote Gill.  “Normal guidelines concerning nutrition, hygiene, and recreation cannot be implemented if there is no staff to do it, let alone COVID-specific protocols for isolation and deep-cleaning.”

Gill called on the Kenney government to implement a province wide staffing strategy for nursing facilities. Among the most needed reforms is an end to the practice of staff working at more than one facility at a time.

“According to preliminary survey data, 37% of long-term care workers work in more than one site,” said Gill. “This mobility is creating a very dangerous situation.”

“Your government should create the conditions for a quick and coordinated response that ensures that workers are not penalized,” wrote Gill.

Gill said some individual facilities are preventing staff from working elsewhere, but that without provincial co-ordination, the efforts will likely fall short or fail completely. And unless wages are increased, short staffing will continue to be a problem during the crisis.

“We are in this mess because of low wages and poor working conditions,” said Gill. “A successful strategy to get out of it requires a wage subsidy to increase and level wages across the sector.”

CUPE wants changes similar to those enacted in British Columbia, requiring a re-structuration of staffing practices and a rapid reorganization of the workforce. “These goals need to be accomplished without punishing health-care workers in the front-lines.”