A strike by Community Care Access Centre employees would devastate the region, says the Ontario Nurses’ Association president.
The centre’s 88 regional nurses and other health care workers arrange everything from hospital discharges to occupational therapy visits at school for everyone who needs care from Kenora to Marathon. Striking workers would mean an increase hospital gridlock and an absence of home visits for people who need them said ONA president Linda Haslam-Stroud.
CCAC also works on admissions for seniors needing to get into long-term care homes.
“They basically are the navigators and coordinators of all the community care,” Haslam-Stroud said. “They’re the ones that keep the system going… There would be no one there arranging care for anyone in a community that requires it.”
Although, members from 10 of the province’s 14 CCACs voted 95 per cent in favour of a strike mandate, Haslam-Stroud said none of the workers wants to strike but feel forced into one.
Members of the Northwest CCAC vote Sept. 30.
They are currently the lowest paid workers in the province with the poorest benefits package. Haslam-Stroud said the highest paid case manager at the Northwest CCAC makes what the lowest paid case manager makes at a CCAC in Southern Ontario.
“Their wages and benefits and working conditions are dismal compared to the rest of the province,” Haslam-Stroud.
Even equipment is an issue in Northwestern Ontario. Haslam-Stroud said the employer refuses to provide respirators for example.
“They don’t even have a stock,” she said “That’s the common minimum out there in the rest of the province and here were are up in Northwest with our nurses and allied health being treated as second class citizens.”
ONA represents over 3,000 CCAC workers from across the province. A strike would begin Oct.3 if an agreement isn’t reached.
