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Corbella: Wildcat strike costs me my knee surgery and little sympathy for workers

Licia Corbella: This illegal work action won't likely help these workers gain much sympathy

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I was just getting ready to drive to Peter Lougheed hospital Monday — crutches in hand — when I got the dreaded call. My long-awaited knee surgery was cancelled because of the wildcat strike by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees on Monday.

I felt quite deflated. I had mentally prepared — psyched myself up, if you will — to deal with the pain and discomfort of surgery on my right knee in the short term in order to walk and function pain-free in the long term. Oh well, at least I could now drink a cup of coffee and eat some lunch.

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So, instead of heading to the hospital for surgery I headed there to talk to those who caused 157 Albertans — including me — to have their non-emergency surgeries postponed Monday as a result of their illegal strike action.

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According to an Alberta Health Services spokesperson, to put this in context, about 1,000 surgeries are performed daily by AHS, so 15.7 per cent of surgeries were affected but 84 per cent still proceeded as usual.

Most of those cancellations, 131, took place in Edmonton. Calgary had 21 cancellations (including mine) and Lethbridge had five.

The types of procedures cancelled were hysteroscopy, fallopian tube removal, gall bladder removal, ACL reconstruction, knee and shoulder scopes, septoplasty, hip and knee arthroplasty (that’s me!), jaw surgery and vein stripping cases.

Personally, I’m not in terrible pain or anything, but some of these procedures are diagnostic in nature and their cancellation could prevent an early diagnosis of cancer, which is really terrible.

The strike is being held to support unionized workers whose jobs are at risk because of the United Conservative government’s plans to privatize hospital laundry services and laboratory services and other non medical roles. No front-line health care workers will be affected.

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Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) vice-president Bobby-Joe Borodey speaks to Healthcare workers protesting during a walkout at the Foothills Hospital in Calgary on Monday, October 26, 2020.
Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) vice-president Bobby-Joe Borodey speaks to Healthcare workers protesting during a walkout at the Foothills Hospital in Calgary on Monday, October 26, 2020. Photo by Gavin Young /Postmedia

We all feel compassion for people who lose their jobs — it’s unsettling and upsetting — just ask all those oil and gas, restaurant and retail workers who have lost theirs.

While talking to Dani Pavez — a unit clerk in the intensive care unit at Peter Lougheed Hospital and one of the approximately 50 picketers at the site in the afternoon — she pointed out a large K-Bro Linen Systems truck that was driving away from the hospital after having delivered fresh laundry.

Currently, 68 per cent of hospital laundry is contracted out and despite the weeping and gnashing of teeth that occurred back when that took place, the sky never fell and filthy bed sheets didn’t descend upon our hospitals either, as was absurdly predicted by union reps back then. The laundry got cleaned, well and safely.

About 480 people are expected to lose their hospital laundry jobs across the province but presumably, some of those people could be hired by whichever private provider gets that contract.

When told that my knee surgery was supposed to be starting right about the time I was chatting with her in the building behind her, Pavez asked why my surgery was cancelled. I told her it was because of the wildcat strike.

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“Exactly,” she said. “This strike is to show (Premier Jason) Kenney that we are essential. We matter and we are important and it’s important to remember that we are not just AUPE members; we are taxpayers and we are Albertans also,” said Pavez, who was on a day off.

“We’re here doing this wildcat strike to tell the government that we’re not going to take it any more. They’re trying to privatize health care with all the cuts that Kenney has made . . . It doesn’t just affect us and our wages; it’s basically about Albertans.”

Healthcare workers protest during a walkout at the Foothills Hospital in Calgary on Monday, October 26, 2020.
Healthcare workers protest during a walkout at the Foothills Hospital in Calgary on Monday, October 26, 2020. Photo by Gavin Young /Postmedia

The problem with that statement is there have not been cuts in health care. The government is spending more money than ever on health care and without changes, the increases will make the system unsustainable.

There have been some pretty clumsy restructuring moves made by Health Minister Tyler Shandro that have infuriated doctors. Had some of those proposed changes not been walked back by Shandro, they would have negatively affected patient care — particularly in rural Alberta.

Why, however, does laundry have to be done in hospital by public employees? Clearly, it doesn’t have to.

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Laboratory services are expected to be the next area where about 2,000 public employees are expected to “transition” into private delivery of that essential service.

I’m sure some Husky employees facing layoffs would eagerly trade places with those lab workers who will simply see a change in whose signature is on their paycheques.

No doubt union officials will be sad to see more union dues disappear. But all Albertans have been making do with less — not just during the COVID-19 pandemic but for the past five years.

Outside the hospital Monday, Mary-Anne Martens, a licensed practical nurse, had a sign strapped to her front that says, “Fair Deal Now.”

“We haven’t seen a wage increase in over three years,” she complained.

Has anyone in Alberta? I haven’t had one in 11 years.

“The premier has had a raise,” she says. Wrong again.

Last year, Premier Jason Kenney took a 10 per cent wage cut. MLAs saw their salaries cut by five per cent. If you include the Jim Prentice-era rollback, it’s 15 per cent and 10 per cent respectively. Political staff took a seven per cent cut.

This illegal work action won’t likely help these workers gain much sympathy.

If this were a perfect world, none of these upsetting changes would ever be needed. But clearly, the entire world is in a tough spot.

At about 9 p.m. Monday night the striking workers were ordered ordered back to work by the labour board. Here’s hoping on Tuesday these workers follow the law.

Licia Corbella is a Postmedia columnist.

lcorbella@postmedia.com

Twitter: @LiciaCorbella

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