A couple of issues for this post.
First, a follow-up from the board’s deliberations on Haiti. As I indicated in my last post, your Board of Directors directed HSAA’s Humanitarian Fund to the Red Cross for international relief late last year. At its meeting last week, it took notice of the tremendous response from Canadians, and that includes many, many HSAA members. Good on you!!! Given where we are in our budget year, many local units have allocated their unspent local unit funds to Haiti relief, and we are actively encouraging that practice.
The re-building of Haiti will require decades of effort, and it appears that there are sufficient funds to meet the immediate humanitarian needs. Whether the aid is getting to the right people at the right time is another question, but appears to be related more to logistics than to funding. Nonetheless, your HSAA board members will keep this in mind as it moves forward, and as it considers the 2010-11 budget allocation for Humanitarian Relief.
Dr. Duckett – trying to avoid layoffs
On the membership services side, we continue to keep abreast of developments within Alberta Health Services and our other employers. Regardless of the employer, the activities at AHS affect pretty much everyone. We are still awaiting the outcome of the voluntary exit programs, as well as the Labour Relations Board decision regarding the integration of Emergency Medical Services.
One question that continues to come up is what, if any cuts to positions we will be dealing with. There are questionable practices of posting vacancies in permanent positions as temporary, and our staff are dealing with these. One of our members recently had a conversation with Dr. Duckett on a flight, and reported that he stressed that he is trying to avoid layoffs, and that if there are any, they will be ‘in the tens, not hundreds’ (paraphrased).
We are prepared to take him at his word, but playing around with permanent positions, denying members access to benefits, and introducing the uncertainty of the status of positions is not dramatically different from anticipating layoffs. And we don’t yet know what, if anything, that means for our pharmacy colleagues in Calgary, where the outpatient pharmacy is going to be contracted out in September. If you are on the receiving end of one of the few layoffs, the total numbers probably don’t make a difference to you.
On another front, we applaud Dr. Duckett’s stated goal of decreasing workplace injuries. That is an area where the health system has a dismal record, and any work to improve the health and well-being of our members, and all health care workers, is one that we will applaud and support. Vice President of Workplace Health and Safety, Todd Gilchrist, met with the HSAA Occupational Health, Safety and Wellness Committee recently, and also emphatically stated his goal of improving that record.
We will have to be vigilant in assessing whether there is substance to those stated goals, and to remind everyone at AHS that the unrelenting stress, short-staffing and uncertainty that members have been working with for years are significant factors in physical and mental health.
“Join Together” hosts Town Halls across Alberta
Finally, the Join Together Alberta www.jointogetheralberta.ca campaign is underway, with town hall meetings in 22 communities. If my experience in Medicine Hat and Brooks last week is any indication, Albertans are participating in significant numbers. The campaign is in support of public services of all kinds, so it is in your interest to attend these Town Hall meetings. Wear the Alberta tartan, send a letter to your MLA, work with others to fight cuts to the vital services that you provide and those that others provide that strengthen the fabric of our society.
That’s it for today. Remember Haiti!