The President of SEIU-West says it’s time for members to share what’s truly happening in health care with the public.
That’s why they gathered in front of the legislature late Tuesday morning to highlight their concerns, in particular with the understaffing of front line healthcare workers.
Barbara Cape acknowledges that the government emphasizes it is spending unprecedented amounts of money on healthcare, but she says front line workers aren’t seeing it.
Cape adds there has been a ‘whitewash’ of the report from the CEO tour of Long Term Care facilities which includes concerns of inadequate funding, understaffing and crumbling infrastructure.
SEIU-West has been without a collective agreement for 3 years and are working at 2016 rates of pay.
Negotiations broke off in May.
Cape believes the reason there are challenges with recruiting new staff and retaining current staff are related to being without a collective agreement for so long.