By Alexandra Phillips, March 24, 2020
The Globe and Mail reported March 21st. that the Covid-19 outbreak that resulted in fifty-four cases of infection and seven deaths at Lynn Valley Care is linked to the union-busting of its health care workers. Privatizing health care, it turns out, affects more than the bottom line of management companies. It can have lethal consequences for patients and seriously compromise public safety.
In the article a Covid-infected worker called "Lena" described how Lynn Valley Care's management ditched their union agreement a few years ago. The resulting loss of pay by $2 an hour and reduced sick days (from ten to three), resulted in workers returning to work before recovering from illness, and taking shifts at other facilities to make up the lost income. One of these transmitted Covid-19 from Lynn Valley Care to Hollyburn House Retirement Residence.
The worker's economic plight was increased when Dr. Bonny Henry directed that they may now only work at one facility to mitigate further spread of the virus. For Lena, now quarantined at home, this measure demonstrates the urgency of reform in the health care sector. Better wages and adequate sick days would reduce the transmission of disease by workers traveling from one facility to another and working while sick.
"This is the right time for us to come together so the government will see the situation of the health care workers who are the front-liners who work hard," she said.
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