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CCAC workers walk off job in search of better wages: UPDATED

THUNDER BAY -- About 125 Community Care Access Centre health-care professionals in Northwestern Ontario are now on strike – a move that one picket said is upsetting but necessary.
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North West Community Care Access Centre nurses took to the picket line Friday. (Jodi Lundmark, tbnewswatch.com)

THUNDER BAY -- About 125 Community Care Access Centre health-care professionals in Northwestern Ontario are now on strike – a move that one picket said is upsetting but necessary.

“We care about our clients,” said Shawndel Polhill, a complex community care coordinator with the North West CCAC.

“We are very upset to be out here. We don’t want to be out here. We want to get back to work so we can get back to our clients,” she said on the picket line Friday morning.

About 3,000 CCAC workers across the province, represented by the Ontario Nurses Association, were forced to walk off the job Friday, fighting for fair wages. Their contract expired in March 2014 and nine of 10 bargaining units voted yesterday in favour of the strike.

In the last contract, the workers agreed to a two-year wage freeze. Now, Polhill said they want a nominal yearly increase comparable to nurses in other health-care sectors.

“I think we’re just as important as everybody else,” she said.

The striking workers are responsible for helping transition people out of the hospital that have complex needs into their homes with increased services. They also assess people who need equipment like walkers and make home visits to people who may have wounds or other injuries.

ONA labour relations officer Chris Cormier said the nurses are asking for what the rest of the industry is making in wages.

“There is well over 57,000 nurses that have been paid what they’ve asked for,” he said.

“We’re asking for fairness. We’re asking for quality public services and more importantly quality care for the citizens of Thunder Bay and the northwest to get what they deserve.”

North West CCAC chief executive officer Tuija Puiras said they are willing to go back to the bargaining table whenever the ONA wants, but in the meantime they have a contingency plan in place so clients don’t experience any service disruptions during the strike.

“We have management staff and non-union staff doing the core business of the operations,” said Puiras, adding they have also outlined their contingency plan with their health-care partners in the community.

Although service disruptions shouldn’t be felt in the immediate future, if the strike continues long-term, there could be concerns, said Puiras.

“Strikes are always a losing proposition in my mind in the sense that we certainly value our people and we’d like them back to work doing what they need to do and making sure the people get the quality of service that they require,” she said.





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