June 23, 2021

SENT VIA EMAIL

The Honourable Rod Phillips, M.P.P.

Minister of Long Term Care

rod.phillips@pc.ola.org

Dear Minister Phillips,

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your appointment to Minister of Long-Term Care.

Unifor represents 30,000 health care workers in Ontario’s health care system, with about half working in the long-term care sector, and we understand the incredible urgency to implement systemic changes for the benefit of residents and staff.

While we appreciate the commitments your government has made towards improvements, for the most part, they have not translated into any measurable relief in the sector. There has been no visible improvement in working conditions, and quite frankly, when temporary pandemic pay ends for PSWs in August, there may be a further exodus as the economy reopens and opportunities become available outside of the sector.

I must stress that LTC workers of all classifications are traumatized after working through what can only be described as a humanitarian crisis. Their stories of “code red” outbreaks are simply heartbreaking. They witnessed the deaths of so many of their beloved residents, in working conditions that were unbearable, as their co-workers fell ill with COVID-19. Two Unifor PSWs are among the 24 health care workers in Ontario who have died of COVID-19 contracted in the workplace.

The reality is that the pandemic exposed a Long-Term Care system that was crumbling. In December of 2019, I asked Premier Ford to spend one shift with me in a nursing home. This was after Unifor held a series of LTC forums across the province, inviting all stakeholders, including front-line workers, families, employers, educators, and government officials. A report compiled by the Ontario Health Coalition, Caring in Crisis: Ontario’s LTC PSW shortage, identified daily staff shortages and extreme turnover rates, with many leaving the sector altogether. The recommendations from that report remain valid today.

There are very concrete measures that can be taken today. These include:

1. Transparency: publicly disclose hours of care reported by all LTC facilities with verification from the union in each workplace. Demand disclosure on overtime and agency use and full-time to part-time and casual ratios. Implement a standard of 70% full-time for all classifications.
2. Pay: implement permanent pay adjustments for all classifications of LTC workers. In real dollars, these workers have not had a pay increase above inflation in a decade. Wage patterns are set in arbitration and arbitrators have not been generous. Many LTC workers have been denied maintenance of proxy pay equity by for-profit employers, who, to this day, are fighting their responsibility in court. They are being assisted by the Ontario Attorney General’s office. LTC workers in the not-for-profit sector must be exempted from Bill 124.

3. Implement a campaign to attract the thousands of qualified PSWs who have left the industry to return. Full-time work with benefits as well as reasonable ratios of staff to residents will be necessary to accomplish this, but if you build it, they will come.

4. Move up the time-line on four hours of care. This should be implemented immediately wherever possible.
5. Mandate ten paid sick days for all LTC workers. In this sector more than any other, coming to work ill can be deadly.

I respect that your intentions for the sector are to make substantive changes for the good of the residents and the workers, but the process must include the voices of front-line workers and their representatives. I would appreciate a meeting with your team at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

Jerry Dias
National President, Unifor

Canada’s social safety net – including Employment Insurance – has been dismantled bit by bit as part of a deliberate restructuring of our economy to suit the needs of business, not workers.

It was a failed experiment, and needs to be reversed.

There was a philosophical and ideological shift over a generation that put individualism first and foremost – a belief in working strictly for wages, rather than passion or principle, and shamed anything that looked like getting something for nothing.

Unemployment went from a being normal, structural economic issue affecting workers, to something unnatural, a result of personal flaws, lack of skill and character deficiencies.

Changing the name from Unemployment Insurance to Employment Insurance in 1996 was part of that. It was clear there would be no place for a strong unemployment insurance program, as we had seen in the early 1970s.

In fact, the political architects of this neoliberal worldview worked hard to dismantle it, convincing policymakers the program was hurting Canada’s productivity and competitiveness by encouraging poor work ethics and habits.

Hogwash.

This patronizing government attitude can be best summed up by former Conservative Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty, when, on the heels of the Great Recession and sustained joblessness in Canada, he remarked, “There is no bad job; the only bad job is not having a job.”

This myth of an increasingly idle Canadian workforce was told over and over by political leaders in speeches and media interviews – often with quotes from low-wage employers complaining they couldn’t find workers at poverty-level wages.

It all proved very effective on multiple levels.

It gave elected officials a political shield to justify cuts and restrict access to EI benefits.

It divided the working class. Those with good jobs were told they should resent “lazy people” abusing the program.

Applying for EI became punitive, socially unacceptable and difficult as possible for unemployed workers.

It made those working in exploitative and dangerous conditions to think twice about quitting – knowing they would not get EI while they looked for a better job.

Worst of all, it reduced labour power and undermined wage growth – giving low-wage employers a pool of desperate workers willing to accept jobs, any jobs, despite their skills or interest.

COVID-19 has revealed not only how critically flawed EI had become, but poked many holes in the myths and assumptions that justified EI’s erosion in the first place.

CERB needed to be developed and implemented fast because of EI’s flawed design. No other pre-existing program could get the support needed by hundreds of thousands of jobless workers to pay their bills and buy essential goods and services. CERB helped absorb a lot of the economic shock the pandemic created.

How many additional businesses would have been forced to close if people did not have money to spend in their communities?

Canadians have now seen what happens when there are little-to-no income security supports in times of crisis, and are demanding that programs they contribute to will be when they need them.

In response, Unifor is launching a national campaign and report proposing meaningful reforms to Canada’s EI system, to make the program fair, accessible, equitable and resilient – a callback to why it was created in the first place, more than half a century ago.

EI is not a handout. It is a critical part of Canada’s social safety net, protecting workers, businesses, communities and the economy.

The corporate community might have benefitted from the “every person for themselves” ethos that ravaged workers’ livelihoods, but that experiment is over. It has abjectly failed.

The pandemic has reminded us all of the importance of the collective, and protecting the common good.  Throughout this difficult time, political leaders have often reassured us that “we’re all in this together.” It is time our social programs and policies reflect that.

Dear Sisters, Brothers and Friends,

This has been a National Indigenous History Month like no other. The June 24 announcement of the confirmation of the remains of 751 children at the former residential school site on Cowessess territory in Saskatchewan has further amplified the calls for searches at other sites across the country.

Unifor locals are asking what they can do to support grieving members and nearby Indigenous communities.

While there are no easy answers to undoing cultural genocide and intergenerational pain and trauma it causes to this day, Unifor is part of the movement for truth, justice, and reconciliation. Keeping this on the national political agenda is a top priority.

We’re asking Unifor members to translate anger into action:

1. Wear orange on Canada Day. Started by residential school survivor Phyllis Jack Webstad in 2013, orange shirts have become a symbol to honour survivors of residential schools.
2. Share these 24/7 helplines:
   1. National Indian Residential School Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419
   2. Missing and murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Support Line: 1-844-413-6649
   3. Hope for Wellness Help Line and Chat: 1-855-242-3310
3. Unifor supports the 94 recommendations issued by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. They are an urgent call to action for government and organizations to take meaningful action on a many outstanding issues, ranging from protecting language and culture to education to ensuring justice for the victims of residential school violence. Contact your Member of Parliament and demand they be a vocal supporter of the 94 Calls to Action within their caucus and to government.
4. Unifor’s Education Department has a relationship with San’yas Indigenous Cultural Safety Training. This training fosters a climate that recognizes and respects the unique history of Indigenous peoples to provide appropriate care and services in an equitable and safe way, without discrimination. To find out how your local can participate, please contact education@unifor.org
5. Donate to the Indian Residential School Survivors Society.
6. Encourage support for local and regional organizations, programs or initiatives to engage in active reconciliation with Indigenous people.

With all your efforts, please amplify Indigenous voices in your community.

Whichever action you take, please share your work with the National Office and on social media so others can follow our example to do their part in reconciliation.

In solidarity,

Jerry Dias
President