REGINA, Sask. — As CUPE Local 5430 members staged a picket line outside the Delta Regina, union leadership released new survey results highlighting conditions facing continuing care assistants.
At a news conference inside, CUPE Local 5430 president Bashir Jalloh shared survey results from the union's report, Checking the Pulse of CCAs, released that day.
According to the union's news release on the report, 76 per cent of respondents said they did not have safe staffing levels; 68 per cent of those working in home care reported they did not have enough time to travel between clients; 74 per cent said they did not have enough time to provide adequate patient care; and 73 per cent reported they would not recommend friends or family members become a CCA.
“The CCAs are the lowest paid in Saskatchewan. If you look at any province in Canada, we are last,” Jalloh said to reporters Friday.
He said CUPE has “communicated this to the government, to our employer on many, many, many occasions. But we felt that most of our voices have gone unnoticed. So we are here today with them. And these CCAs, they are the finest and the most hardworking people you can see. They are the ones that look after our parents in their homes and also across all facilities.”
Laura Guilbault, a CCA in the Regina area, said the survey was done by the CCA committee based on what members were hearing from their colleagues.
“They are tired. They're burnt out. And it's getting harder to provide the care that our clients and patients need. The CCAs are continually being asked to do more with less. It's becoming unsustainable.”
She added that CCAs are “the backbone of Saskatchewan's health-care system, but we're not treated like it. We haven't had a wage increase in four and a half years. And we make some of the lowest wages in Canada.”
Kristina Seufert, a CCA from Prince Albert, pointed to some of the issues within the system. She said two years ago, the “SHA decided to start rotating the staff in the long-term care facility I work in.”
“Since that decision was made, the turnover rate for nursing staff and CCA staff has been immense. This facility also now has the highest overtime rate in northern Saskatchewan.”
This latest news conference, as well as the protest by CUPE health-care workers outside the hotel that day, comes as bargaining continues between CUPE 5430 and the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations on a new collective agreement.
The union voted 99 per cent in favour of job action in September. Since then, the two sides have continued to hold bargaining sessions and some progress has been reported.
Jalloh confirmed Friday that the two sides “are in bargaining today. We received the package today. We've been back and forth.”
According to the union, the major issues remain the same, with wage levels and the retention of workers still a concern for the union.
“The bottom line for this round of bargaining is, what are we going to do to keep our health-care workers in Saskatchewan?” Jalloh said.
“Because currently what we do, because of the low wages in this province, because of the working conditions, people are leaving to other provinces, neighbouring provinces, either Alberta or Manitoba. Our goal is, what are we going to do to keep our members here?”
He said in Saskatchewan, CCAs are “paid $24.84 an hour. And if you look at the Western Canada average, it's over $30, $30.80. We want that. The employer has moved a little bit, but it is nowhere near the Western Canada average… People used to be paid in this, in every classification, they used to look at Western Canada average, but today we are below that, and that is where things are.”
