June 23, 2006
LRB hearing UNA concerns about impartiality
On Friday, June 23 the Labour Relations Board was hearing concerns from UNA and other unions that there is a “reasonable apprehension of bias” in its fairness and impartiality in implementing Bill 27.
UNA suggested that the LRB’s decisions around Bill 27 should be set aside because members of the Board appear to have collaborated with the government in drafting the Legislation.
Bill 27 took the right to strike away from thousands of nurses and caused a massive upheaval in Alberta’s health care system. The Alberta Labour Relations Board administered the changes, but last year proof came to light that the Board had also secretly collaborated with the government on drafting Bill 27. UNA took the Board to court over the “apprehension of bias”.
Lack of transparency, accountability at LRB creates crisis in confidence
A new report commissioned by the Alberta Federation of Labour says that the Alberta Labour Relations Board failed to maintain transparency and integrity in administering Bill 27. Dr. Lorne Sossin, Associate Dean of Law at the University of Toronto prepared the report in the wake of the Bill 27 controversy.
Sossin found that the undisclosed involvement of the Board Chair in preparing the law is “problematic and damaging.” He also said that other province’s hold their LRBs to a higher standard and that the Board failed to ensure proper transparency, which undermined its integrity among stakeholders.
“Dr. Sossin’s report articulates very clearly that the Labour Relations Board failed in a number of serious respects to uphold its obligations for transparency, impartiality and integrity,” said AFL President Gil McGowan at a news conference on Thursday.
Calgary union Stampede breakfast
The Calgary and District Labour Council (CDLC) is hosting the 16th Annual Union Stampede Breakfast on SUNDAY, JULY 9th, 2006 from 8 am. till noon. The breakfast will be held at the CDLC parking lot, 315 – 10th Ave. SE.
Volunteers are urgently required from 6:00 am to 1:00 pm on Sunday, July 9th, 2006 to assist with the set-up, take-down, and supervision of family activities.
The Union Stampede Breakfast is totally funded by Union donations.
Code Blue for childcare campaign
Nurses unions are getting behind a CODE BLUE for Child Care campaign being run by The Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada (CCAAC). They want to protect the early learning and childcare agreements between the Government of Canada and the provinces. The federal-provincial agreements on child care lay a foundation for a full system of early learning and child care that can meet the needs of all Canadian families. Cancelling them sets back the development of a national childcare program for years to come.
Nursing and HIV/AIDS conference
Nurses will be discussing some of the most pressing issues relating to HIV/AIDS at a national conference August 12 in Toronto. Under the theme of “Nurses at the Forefront of HIV/AIDS: Prevention, Care and Treatment”, nurses who work with HIV/AIDS will discuss topics such as: harm reduction; stigma and discrimination; workplace safety; advances in clinical practice; health human resources; end of life issues; and adherence to antiretroviral therapy. The conference is sponsored by the Canadian Nurses Association, Canadian Association of Nurses in AIDS Care and the International Council of Nurses. For more details and information on registering check the CNA website: www.cna-aiic.ca.
Nurse mentoring project in Ontario improves job satisfaction
The Ontario Hospitals Association (OHA) has released the results of a nine-month study in Ontario that demonstrated the value of mentoring to job satisfaction, and to the retention and recruitment of Registered Nurses.
“Mentoring appeared to have had a positive impact on individuals in the areas of job commitment and intention to stay in the nursing profession,” the final report concluded.
The report also noted success in retaining new nurses even where “units felt they could not keep staff, and a time where recent reports found some professional hazing and nurse bullying of new staff is occurring.”
The authors recommended funding a formal mentoring strategy in nursing for all new graduates in their first year of practice; and for experienced nurses who are transitioning to new areas of nursing; and for internationally educated nurses beginning to practice in Canada.
The Ontario government has promised to hire every Registered nursing graduate into a full-time job this year.
The full report is available on the Hospitals Association website: www.oha.com
Massachusetts passes bill on RN Staffing levels
The Massachusetts House of Representatives voted in May to approve a landmark bill to guarantee safe RN staffing in all Massachusetts hospitals. The measure calls upon the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to set safe limits on nurses’ patient assignments, prohibits mandatory overtime and includes initiatives to increase nursing faculty and nurse recruitment.
The bill calls for safe limits on nurses’ patient assignments, prohibits mandatory overtime and includes initiatives to increase nursing faculty and nursing scholarships,
The “Patient Safety Act” will now go to the state Senate for consideration.
Frontline nurses and their allies have worked for years to get to this point. The Massachusetts Nurses Association says: “Those who allowed health care in Massachusetts to be transformed into a market-driven assembly line are fighting tooth-and-nail to preserve the dangerous status quo. Those who champion a just healthcare system need to rally for this positive step.”
The nurses noted that their state had cut RN staffing by more than 27 percent during the 1990s, more than any state in the U.S. At the same time there was a reported 498 percent increase in patient injuries and complaints in hospitals.
Ontario nurses talks stall, employers want to roll back sick leave
The Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) talks for a new provincial agreement stalled when the employer broke off talks over rolling back sick leave provisions in May. ONA has been bargaining with the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) since late-February. Late in May, the OHA said it would end talks unless Nurses agreed to gut sick-leave provisions for hospital RNs. This collective agreement affects almost 50,000 ONA member RNs.
“The Ontario government says its mandate is to recruit and retain nurses,” says Linda Haslam-Stroud, RN, ONA President. “But the OHA’s proposal targets ill and injured nurses at a time when the nursing shortage is resulting in an increase in stress, burnout, illness and injuries.” Studies have shown that nurses are the most ill and injured of all professions.
“In the age of SARS, and with the looming specter of a flu pandemic, telling front-line nurses that they deserve less support when they are ill is shameful,” she adds.
“Nurses are frustrated with the OHA, with the slow pace of efforts to improve conditions, and with the lack of respect and care shown for their own health and well-being as they put their health and lives on the line to care for others,” Haslam-Stroud said.
The negotiations are slated to go to binding arbitration if a settlement is not reached.
On the lighter side
Brief excerpt from a full paper in the current issue of Healthcare Quarterly
A surrealistic mega-analysis of redisorganization theories
Objective: To systematically review the empirical evidence for organizational theories and repeated reorganizations.
Research: We did not find anything worth reading, other than Dilbert, so we fantasized. Unfortunately, our fantasies may well resemble many people’s realities. We are sorry about this, but it is not our fault.
Results: We discovered many reasons for repeated reorganizations, the most common being ‘no good reason’. We estimated that trillions of dollars are being spent on strategic and organizational planning activities each year, thus providing lots of good reasons for hundreds of thousands of people, including us, to get into the business. New leaders who are intoxicated with the prospect of change further fuel perpetual cycles of redisorganization. We identified eight indicators of successful redisorganizations, including large consultancy fees paid to friends and relatives.
Conclusions: We propose the establishment of ethics committees to review all future redisorganization proposals in order to put a stop to uncontrolled, unplanned experimentation inflicted on providers and users of the health services.
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