Nurses demonstrated outside Sainte-Croix Hospital in Drummondville on Sunday against the “disorganized management” of the work of the CIUSSS de la Mauricie-et-du-Centre-du-Québec, the day after a ruling by the Administrative Labor Court (TAT) demanding the union to stop its pressure tactics and “encourage its members to resign en bloc”.
Posted at 2:10 p.m
“Today we don’t demonstrate so that the nurses don’t work one weekend out of three. It’s much broader than that. Right now what employers want to do in Mauricie are big mergers of centers of activity,” interim president of the Union of Care Professionals of Mauricie and Center-du-Québec, Patricia Mailhot, pounded home in front of cameras .
PHOTO SYLVAIN MAYER, THE NEWSLETTER
Patricia Mailhot, Interim President of the Union of Care Professionals of Mauricie and Centre-du-Québec
She claims that a nurse “cannot specialize in more than one area.” “You cannot become a specialist nurse in the operating room, emergency room, medicine or surgery. It’s impossible,” Ms Mailhot continued. “It’s like asking a doctor who’s a psychiatrist to do an operation overnight,” she also said.
Earlier, the Administrative Labor Court ruled that the FIQ-affiliated union must stop its pressure tactics, which include threatening to dismiss nursing staff on a mass scale. Judge Myriam Bédard is barring workers from resigning as part of this mobilization effort. It also requires employees to retract their resignations submitted as part of labor actions.
In the Court’s view, these measures deprive, or are likely to deprive the population of a benefit to which they are entitled. All of this is happening because the CIUSSS de la Mauricie-et-du-Centre-du-Québec recently announced forced changes to nurses’ working hours. This would include being forced to work certain weekends.
“Pay”
Pictures of the demonstration on social networks show a dense crowd in front of the health center. According to the union, hundreds of people took part in the march that followed the demonstration. “Violated our terms by the CEO, that’s enough,” read one of the signs.
PHOTO SYLVAIN MAYER, THE NEWSLETTER
Demonstration in Drummondville
The Alliance of Professional and Technical Health and Social Services Personnel (APTS) from Mauricie – Centre-du-Québec was also there. “We have differences, but we have the same employer. We also witness his disorganized management having an impact. Like you, we want to preserve the services to the population and their quality,” said Véronique Neth, President of APTS Mauricie – Centre-du-Québec.
She argues that the employer has “never paid so little heed” to her “numbers.” “We know that employers’ decisions worsen our working conditions and that this has an impact on the public service. We are in solidarity and will continue to demand to be involved in the solutions. We have to act together,” stressed Ms. Neth.
PHOTO SYLVAIN MAYER, THE NEWSLETTER
Demonstration in Drummondville
In her judgment, Judge Bédard noted that “according to the employer, these measures are intended to relieve the burden on the staff providing continuous care and to reduce the use of mandatory overtime”.
In protest, staff had begun to stop entering computer data into patient records. In particular, this information would make it possible to identify the number of patients, the reasons for consultations, the level of alternative care or the management of patient churn. As a result, “ongoing audits are falsified or even the release of hospital beds is delayed”.
Keep in mind that the collective agreement for the nurses and staff involved in this file expires on March 31st. Originally, the FIQ planned to hand in the resignations on February 27 if they managed to collect 500 signed letters.
With the Canadian Press