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!

Immunization clinics are again underway, though now restricted to targeted groups.  There are lots of opinions about decisions made about the rollout, and there are still many questions that must be answered.  One concern that was raised today is that many Albertans who do not fit into a high risk group will not be immunized because they have queue fatigue.  Some stood in lines for hours or days when all comers were accepted, and still didn’t get to the front.  Some have now stood in one line to immunize the small children, then again with a spouse who is pregnant, a third time to immunize the 5 to 10 year old with asthma (insert any other chronic condition) and perhaps again to get an older child with diabetes vaccinated.  When the vaccine is finally available to the low risk among us, they may be so tired of standing in a line, that they will forego the shot altogether.

As health care workers, you are at the front lines, and my admonition continues to be: Stay safe.  (see comment at bottom of last blog)

Today I met with HSAA’s senior staff to discuss our response to the pandemic.  At this point, our staff have not yet had an opportunity to be immunized and so are at risk of contracting or transmitting the H1N1 virus.  We have heard from some local units that significant numbers have been down with the flu, and have experienced a number of cases at the office. (though absent testing, we don’t know with certainty that it was H1N1.) Some members have also indicated that there is a reluctance to participate in unnecessary gatherings.  Finally, the re is the directive from AHS cancelling any on site social activities involving the public.  In considering all of these factors, we have decided the following:

Field visits will be postponed until the new year

Regular servicing (member concerns, grievances,  meetings with employers on specific issues, etc. will continue.  Labour Relations staff will use their judgment to determine where, and if, meetings with members will occur, informed by restrictions imposed by the employers and their personal risk situation.  This may mean having meetings off site or conducting them by remote means.

Off-site gatherings, such as our seasonal open house, will proceed, and members and guests are asked to assess their personal risk when deciding to attend or not.

We believe this measured response will help to limit the spread of the H1N1 virus without feeding the panic.  This information may change as the flu continues its rounds.  We will assess the situation on an ongoing basis, and will amend our procedures and practices as required.

BTW, a great rally in Red Deer on Saturday.  We need to keep up the pressure.

This blog can also be used to give us information about what’s happening in your sites.

Tomorrow, we stand in remembrance to honour the sacrifice of the men and women who lost their lives in service of their country.  We owe them much.

Regular contributors to the blog will include our Director of Labour Relations, Lynette McAvoy, our Senior Negotiator, Kerry Woollard, our Communications officer Scott Pattison and myself.  We will do quick hits on current issues, and hope that  will be of interest and use to members.  We welcome your comments and feedback, but reserve the right to edit or delete entries to protect the privacy of individuals, and to prevent inappropriate content.

Pandemic – So are you getting your H1N1 vaccination?  I’ve read, seen and heard lots of scientific information, and have seen several members and colleagues flattened by what they describe as one of the worst cases of flu they have ever experienced.  Add to that a sense of responsibility to avoid being the source, and my own personal wimpyness (is that even a word?) I fully intend to roll up my sleeve whenever the vaccine is again available to those not in high risk groups.

Voluntary Severance programme – While this is now available for all direct AHS employees, I will be interested to see how many HSAA members will actually be approved.  I don’t meet a lot of members who think their jobs are unnecessary.  Please do a very careful assessment before you make that application.  If you are about to retire anyway, this may be a good option, but remember that it will be approved only if your job, or another, can be eliminated. So be prepared to be turned down if they will need to fill your position.  If your job is going to be eliminated in any case, (e.g. the long proposed consolidation of gynecological cytology) you will do far better taking a layoff with the possibility of accessing the severance in the collective agreement – 2 weeks per year of service instead of 1.5, and the prohibition of working for AHS or a related employer is only for the length of the severance payment, vs. 2x in the voluntary programme.  If you have any uncertainty, please contact a labour relations officer before you commit yourself.

Dr. Duckett’s contest – So why is the contest only about cutting costs, and not about improving care?  Having said that, we’ve always known that the people on the front lines are full of great ideas, and know how ideas play out on the ground.  How about an ongoing contest that’s about great patient care, rather than an invitation to potentially undermining each other?  Don’t get sucked into proposing cuts to others’ jobs, or into undermining your own collective agreement!!!

Speaking of the CONTRACT – Repeat after me: We have a contract, we negotiated it in good faith, we expect it to be honoured!!! Free overtime says you are not worth your pay – don’t do it !!!!! Those of us who are long enough in the tooth to remember the ‘90s also recall that we took cuts with the hope of avoiding layoffs, and the betrayal we felt when the layoffs came anyway.  We remember that those who didn’t lose their jobs were left with the additional work burden, the management duties that were downloaded, and very frequently the survivor guilt.

And finally (for this post) the fightback campaigns – Whether it’s the campaign against the closure of Alberta Hospital Edmonton, the Friends of Medicare’s “Wrong Way” campaign or any other efforts to protect our public health care system, I urge you, I plead with you, to participate.  HSAA has been front and centre as an organization, but it is the weight of the numbers of our individual members, the personal contacts with your politicians, the letters that you, your family, neighbours and your friends write that will carry the day.  It’s about so much more than your jobs and livelihoods, but it is about those too.  You are also Albertans, someone’s mother, father, brother, sister, son or daughter, and you are taxpayers!  Don’t let anyone tell you that you do not have a right to fight for MEDICARE!!

That’s my rant for today.  Now it’s your turn.