To the editor:?
It has been a pain in the RPN's side for what seems an eternity and we are still not receiving pay equity.
The Service Employees International Union boasts about personal support workers getting a $4-an-hour raise, but I have seen nothing for years, just empty promises and more delays.
My sister and brother RPNs have retired, and some have actually died, waiting for pay equity.
Think what this could have meant for RPNs or their families.
We work alongside the RN doing the same things that they do with minor differences in my unit, and other units.
We give medications, we start IVs, access central lines, work in the same conditions and when we are told we are equivalant to the electricians, where is the pay that makes it so?
The union and hospital continue with stall tactics meanwhile we have all lost our patience and are starting to look for other jobs.
No one is interested in doing the same things and only getting paid almost half of what the RN makes when we should be making two-thirds of the RN wage.
When is it going to be our turn? We have waited more than 10 years for this. We have lost respect for those who continue with empty promises.
We get newsletters filled with nothingness, just parades and barbecues with nothing about the issues at hand or RPN agenda which should have been front line.
Being put to the back of the bus makes us a little weary and how can you show trust to someone who has done nothing to earn it, who skates and dances around anything that remotely smells or sounds like RPN agendas.
Esther Cvirik,
Welland,?Ont.
