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Issue #, Date

Ontario Council of Hospital Unions/CUPE

UPDATE

160 attend Kingston community lunch with CUPE National president Paul Moist March 7 to help organize for a March 28 rally against contracting out. Above Kingston CUPE local 1974 executive with Paul Moist.

15 community tour campaign on hospital acquired infections starts

3,200-5,000 Ontario hospital patients die every year from infections, many preventable
A 15 community tour of northern Ontario on hospital acquired infections kicked off in North Bay on March 4. Environmental services staff member Steve Fournier ( photo ) and Registered Practical Nurse Cheri Rogers talked about the superbugs we are dealing with in the hospitals- VRE, MRSA, C Difficle among them and how we deal with them. Steve and Cherri are from CUPE local 139 representing staff at the North Bay General Hospital. The campaign is calling for additional cleaning and nursing staff, an increase in the numbers of funded beds available for patients to ease overcrowding, an end to the contracting out of cleaning and posting of death rates. The tour will take place in May across northern Ontario. Full details posted on the website: www.ochu.on.ca The 5 year campaign has forced the province to require hospitals to post their infection rates on the Ministry of Health website.

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Issue Pat Whitfield ( left ) former #, Date president of the local representing workers at the Hamilton General Hospital has died after a long and brave fight against cancer. Pat was a fearless advocate for her membership, within the union and with the hospitals. She was active during the hospital strike of 1981, through the formation of OCHU and for many years after. She will be truly missed.

March 28 at noon: provincial demonstration in Kingston to protest contracting out of food

The decision by the board of directors of the Kingston General Hospital to proceed with the contracting out of food services, after 14,000 citizens protested the move and the Kingston city council voted against it has led to a provincial demonstration at the hospital on March 28 at noon. So far 13 buses are confirmed from across the province to participate in the rally. A lunch for community members and labour activists with CUPE National president Paul Moist was held on March 7 and 160 activists attended. The decision to contract out the food service was done after the successful bidder was given copies of the bids of the other contenders and the in-house dietary service- the successful bidder in the first round one was prevented from bidding in the second. The Minister of Health has said that she is fine with that process. The Kingston General Hospital has started a radio ad campaign to fundraise, something that it has never had to do before, in response to the damage to its public image. Kingston themes itself the city of sustainability, so it is very embarrassing rd that the 3 largest employer in the community has decided to buy its food from Ottawa, ship it to Toronto to be plated and back up the 401 to Kingston to be eaten. The Kingston campaign is being fought in conjunction with the National Farmers Union, who will be providing 20 pieces of farm equipment for the protest. If you can attend the demonstration, please call the OCHU office ( 416 599 0770 ) to be put in contact with the bus organizer for your community.

May campaign against the bed closures

Many elderly patients are being pushed out of hospital while still acutely ill. This is happening because Ontario has closed 18,000 acute care beds in the last 15 years and plans to close 5,000 more. As a result occupancy in hospitals is over 97% and there is a significant increase in deaths from hospital acquired infections due to overcrowding ( see page 1 ). In conjunction with the Ontario Association of Language Speech Pathologists and Audiologists, OCHU is setting up a hotline for family members and patients to call in to talk with our staff if they were pushed out of hospital. Media conferences to announce the hotline will be held across the province with family members and patients in May. A legal challenge against the province citing discrimination in the provision of care based on age is also in the works.