Claresholm loses four health-care jobs; more may follow

By Rob Vogt Local Press Writer
Alberta Health Services has eliminated four health-care support positions in Claresholm, and there may be as many as 90 to follow.
Darren Graham, the south region vice-president for the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, said in an interview on April 8 that three full-time and one part-time laundry positions were eliminated at the Claresholm Centre for Mental Health and addictions.
The hourly wage scale for those workers was $17.60 to $19.20.
That scale was adjusted by one per cent in January of 2020 to $17.78 to $19.39, after a efforts by the union through arbitration. That contract actually went back to 2016 where in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 there was a zero percent increase.
The initial proposal, by Alberta Health Services, was for a four percent reduction followed by zero per cent the remaining years.
The most recent proposal is for zero per cent for 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.
“Inflation is taking a big chunk out of take-home pay,” Graham said.
In ATB Financial’s most recent report, thre was a 4.8 percent inflation rate in February of 2022.
“It’s a pay cut if you don’t meet inflation,” Graham said.
He also noted members pay 8.58 percent of their pension, while the employer contributes 9.58 per cent.
Benefits are cost-shared with the employee paying 25 per cent, which equates to $29.05 per month for a family plan with dental, and $42.86 for a family plan with health care.
Graham said there is a belief by some that union members get these pension and benefits without making contributions of their own.
The change in laundry service has other effects, Graham said.
It is now on a quota system, so sometimes there is a wait for sheets and gowns.
If an outbreak occurs, the facility’s capacity to wash scrubs, gowns, linen and other items is gone because laundy now comes from the city.
That loss of local control means a facility cannot adapt to changing conditions.
Graham also said there have been reports across the province of issues with the quality of laundry too, without naming specific sites.
He also fears that more jobs may be eliminated, including at Claresholm health-care sites.
Graham points to a report by Ernst and Young, commissioned by the provincial government to make health care sustainable.
He said Alberta Health Services is contemplating, and has scheduled, privatizing clinical and non-clinical patient transportation; environmental services, which includes housekeeping and janitorial; in-patient food service; and potentially some maintenance positions.
Graham said that may have direct impacts to this area such as layoffs, but indirect ones as well such as bumping. Bumping is when someone may be bumped from one site due to a layoff, to another site where they still have seniority for a job, bumping the person with less seniority.
All told, there is a potential that 90 positions in the Claresholm chapter of AUPE may be privatized out of a total of 209.
“It can have a very severe impact,” he said.
That would go across the Claresholm Centre for Mental Health and Addictions, Claresholm General Hospital and Willow Creek Continuing Care Centre.
“That’s going to have a huge trickle-down effect,” Graham said, noting those workers support the local economy.
He stressed the privatized jobs will be paid less, likely minimum wage which is $15 per hour, and no pension or benefits.
“Our main concern is losing these jobs,” Graham said.
He observed if Claresholm loses 90 jobs, many of those will be replaced by privatized companies from out of town or out of country, who may not support the local economy.
The hourly wage ranges of these positions are: $19.43 to $21.23 for environmental services; $17.78 to $19.39 for food staff; $26.14 to $28.53 for maintenance; and $30 to $32.94 for a different maintenance classification.
That is based on a 7.75-hour work day, five days a week, for 2,095 hours a year.
Again, Graham fears a reduction in the quality of services once they are privatized.
For example, environmental services are the ones who clean and sanitize facilities.
He fears standards can be watered down by private contractors, leading to negative consequences such as super bugs, and eventually that would be a higher cost to tax payers.
“These are all front-line jobs,” Graham said.
He stressed that without these staff doing their jobs the other work in health care cannot get done. He called them the bottom pillar that holds up health care.
“Without everybody doing their part, the team can’t get their work done,” Graham said.
Ultimately, he said, they are looking for job security, so workers do not live with a fear of losing their jobs, and a wage that at least matches the rate of inflation.
“They went to work in the pandemic,” he said, stressing they were part of the infection prevention process to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Privatizing jobs is not the answer to controlling costs, he continued.
“It really hurts towns and rural Alberta,” Graham said, adding in their opinion, “It’s a political decision.”