January 14, 2005
UNA takes Bethany Care to Labour Board over illegal proposal
UNA has filed a complaint with the Labour Relations Board (LRB) against the Bethany Care Society for holding up negotiations for nurses at the Cochrane facility. UNA is asking the LRB to rule that the Society is failing to bargain in good faith by reaching an impasse on an illegal proposal.
While the contract negotiations early in December settled salary and all the significant issues, a proposal by Bethany that RNs leave the nursing home to do a “walk-through” of an adjacent residential wing is the remaining problem.
UNA says the proposal is illegal because it would contravene the Nursing Home Act which requires there be an RN on duty in a nursing home at all times.
“We’re asking the Board to rule. Our view is you can’t bargain to impasse on an illegal proposal,” UNA’s Director of Labour Relations told news media, adding that once the LRB makes a decision he hopes negotiations can be quickly completed.
There will be an initial conference on the complaint on January 26 and if the matter is not settled the LRB will go to a formal hearing on February 11.
Nurses at Bethany Care Cochrane have also presented a Professional Responsibility Complaint (PRC) and begun the PRC process. The walk-through proposal would be unsafe, say the nurses. “Our nurses are already responsible for the 78 residents in the nursing home. Expanding that responsibility to cover 50 more residents, no matter at what level of care, would not provide safe care.
In December the nurses also placed an ad in a local Cochrane newspaper about Bethany’s unsafe proposal and distributed flyers to the residents about their concerns.
Benefits for “all” medications still not being consistently reimbursed
UNA has learned that although Calgary, David Thompson and Capital health regions are paying for all meds that have a DIN, or Drug Information Number, those employers in the Health Organizations Benefit Plan (HOBP) are not. These employers have recently denied coverage for medications such as Colace and vitamin E, even though there was a Doctor’s prescription. The HOBP claims that Colace is not a medication. (They are unable to explain what it is or why it is kept in the medication cupboard at their facilities though.)
“We were successful at 2 arbitrations and the Court of Queens Bench in having a declaration that “all” medications must be covered if prescribed - not just those that require a prescription,” notes UNA Director of Labour Relations, David Harrigan. “The employers agreed to live with this court result during negotiations, but now that commitment seems to have disappeared.”
UNA suggests all nurses should continue to save all prescribed medication receipts and contact their Local or their Labour Relations Officer if the Employer denies a claim. Locals have already filed several grievances and more will likely have to be pursued.
Klein’s announcement looks like “third” push for privatizing health care
“This isn’t so much a “Third Way” as it is a third try at privatization,” says UNA Vice President Bev Dick. “But Premier Klein has absolutely no mandate from voters to make any significant changes. He refused to talk about his plans during the election and promised he would only make changes if there was a consensus. Now he’s saying it’s time to get on with it.”
The nurses pointed out that the Premier’s announcement had no details about his “third way” plan. But the Premier did make reference to some of the positive changes, like Health Link and electronic health records, that are going on. Along with more money for health research, and more emphasis on wellness in school education, the Premier then slipped in his push to make more delivery done by for-profit businesses.
“Clearly the Premier is backing away from high profile change in the health system and wants to let the health regions do it by privatizing bits and pieces gradually,” Bev Dick said. “Contracting out surgeries to the for-profit hospital in Calgary is clearly an example of this, as is the privatization of primary health care services.”
Nurses believe that the speech shows the Premier is still determined to turn more of the health system into a profit-centre for private health corporations.
In his public statements he still talks about fiscal responsibility in health care “even if it costs more”. And that’s exactly what has happened, as he admitted himself about the surgeries contracted to the private Calgary hospital -- it costs more. Albertans should be very worried about what costs would be if our public system is broken apart and sold off to many for-profit businesses.
“Nurses know the universal public system is the best health policy for all Albertans,” Bev Dick said. “We are concerned the directions the Premier announced today will endanger that security for all of us.”
California Nurses suing Shwarzenegger over ratios
The California Nurses Association has filed a lawsuit attacking governor Arnold Swarzenegger’s suspension of a 1-to-5 nurse-to-patient staffing requirement that was to become law next week. The nurses are charging his action illegally subverts the Legislature.
The nurse ratio bill, a first-in-the-nation mandate to ensure patient care would not suffer from overburdened nurses, was passed in the Legislature and signed into law in 1999 by then-Gov. Gray Davis.
In its lawsuit filed January 11, the 60,000-member nurses’ association reiterates its claim that failure to further lower the number of patients assigned to each nurse on a general medical floor endangers care. But the group also charged that Schwarzenegger’s move fell short of the legal requirement for issuing an emergency regulation -- and that the governor had abused his discretion in doing so.
“There was no emergency,” said Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the nurses’ association. She called Schwarzenegger’s act “a special interest payoff” that typifies a period of leadership “when corporations really do control a government.”
Canadian labour pledges $1 million for relief
In the first week following the disaster, Canadian labour has pledged more than one million dollars to help the victims of the massive tsunami that devastated large areas all around the Indian Ocean – focusing first and foremost on the need to bring relief as quickly as possible to the hardest hit communities.
“In times of great hardship the labour movement shows the meaning of solidarity and mobilizes to bring support to the workers, their families and their communities,” says Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian Labour Congress.
UNA making contribution to tsunami disaster relief
United Nurses of Alberta is making a financial contribution to the world-wide relief effort for the communities in South East Asia devastated by the tsunami disaster. $5,000 is going into a larger fund being collected by the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) and the Canadian Nurses’ Association to be forwarded to the Indonesian National Nurses’ Association of to assist with their emergency aid efforts.
“Indonesian nurses have been putting up a heroic effort to help the thousands injured and at threat of illness after the disaster,” notes UNA Vice President Bev Dick. “We are please to support this great effort of our fellow nurses.”
A further $10,000 is going from UNA to the Canadian Red Cross for international assistance in all countries affected by the disaster.
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