Locked Out Health Care Workers

[imsiick]

his has been going on for a little over 2 weeks now but I felt the need to give the situation some more awareness. My mom has worked for Monterey Place for quite some time now so this situation hits close to home. Places like this are funded by the government to pay the workers but instead, the owners decide to put that funding into their own pockets.

If you'd like to help you can send a letter to the Premier via this link
http://www.stoptheripoff.ca/

Article:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...sing-home.html

More than 90 Calgary health-care workers and support staff have been locked out of Monterey Place, a nursing home in the northeast.

The employees, who were locked out as of 7 a.m. MT Tuesday, have been without a contract for more than a year. Talks broke off Sunday.

The AUPE's Karen Weiers says it's the residents who are being punished.

A sign posted near the picket area (Scott Dippel/CBC)
“It's the nursing care and the housekeeping and dietary. So, what the employer has in place, I really have no idea, but it’s their main caregivers being locked out on the street.

Weiers says there are two issues at the centre of the dispute.

“They continue to pay sub-standard pay and benefits and this leads to staffing shortages, unreasonable workloads and lack of continuity and that will have a bad effect on the quality of care these residents receive,” says Weiers.

Replacement workers are taking care of seniors now at Monterey Place. Executive director Carole Kelly says the residents are being well taken care of despite the job action.

"We're just reassuring families that we do have the trained staff that we had coming in as replacement staff to look after the residents that are here."

Monteray Place wants the Alberta Labour Board to get locked out workers to vote on what it calls its 'final offer.'

[GP_Matt]

I don't really understand labour politics, but why is it a bad thing to have the members vote on their offer?

[imsiick]

Here are some numbers to compare:

Link

The AUPE contends the employer pays licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and health care aides (HCAs) less than what people in those same positions make working in the public system for AHS.

For our print edition Wednesday morning, I was able to include some facts and figures: the maximum hourly rate for LPNs working for AHS is $32.96, compared to $24.21 at Monterey Place; for HCAs employed by AHS, it’s $23.74 an hour versus $15.94 at Monterey.

[Rerun]

Not trying to be a dick but $32.96 per hour seemed kind of high for an LPN.

So I went to the AHS website and here is an ad for an LPN with a wage range of $23.73 to 31.07

[imsiick]

I don't understand. What I was trying to highlight is the wages at Monterey Place compared to similar facilities.

Ad
Minimum $23.73/hour

Monterey Place
MAXIMUM $24.21/hour

[First Lady]

I'm not surprised.

The AUPE has been publicly hammering the owners through media ads for weeks now. Also on the website they accuse owners of "pocketing the money" and calling them "rip off artists".....

Yeah, that's going to improve your relationship with your employer.

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by imsiick

I don't understand. What I was trying to highlight is the wages at Monterey Place compared to similar facilities.

Ad
Minimum $23.73/hour

Monterey Place
MAXIMUM $24.21/hour

I was just showing that you were right. LPN's make pretty good money at the top end of the scale, working for the AHS.


One question though, why doesn't your Mom just quit her job and go to work for the AHS? Thats what most of us do if we are dissatisfied with the pay in our current job. We quit and go work for someone else that pays more.

[imsiick]

That's not the point. The company is taking government funding and instead of paying the employees, the owner keeps a majority of The money. That just doesn't sit right with me.

[Deegee]

Originally Posted by Rerun

One question though, why doesn't your Mom just quit her job and go to work for the AHS? Thats what most of us do if we are dissatisfied with the pay in our current job. We quit and go work for someone else that pays more.

Union employees typically feel a sense of entitled to more pay. They don't want to work for it like the rest of the public.

In most jobs I've worked for, everyone works towards a common goal.

Every union job I've ever been at the union workers always tell the new employees to work harder because they don't have to help because of seniority or other garbage,

All unions do in modern times in first world countries is create more inflation then required.

I hate unions so much.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by imsiick

That's not the point. The company is taking government funding and instead of paying the employees, the owner keeps a majority of The money. That just doesn't sit right with me.

If your mom (or you) doesn't like the pay structure at her work, she should go find a different job. Nobody is forcing her to work there. It's a private company.

[First Lady]

Originally Posted by imsiick

That's not the point. The company is taking government funding and instead of paying the employees, the owner keeps a majority of The money. That just doesn't sit right with me.

How do you know that? Maybe it's being put into improvements or quality of meals or developing more facilities.

Does the government funding come with stipulations that it must be spent on wages?

For all we know this operator goes out of his way to hire new grads or those who are having difficulty finding work other places and thus they are at the low end of pay scale.