workingwomenworkingpoor_letter_web

CARMEN BARNWELL, SEIU, PSW“We love the work we do. Because the rewarding part of it is that when you givecare and the recipient of that care gives you instant gratification of that smile; yousee them reach out and touch you, or kiss you, or they thank-you because youacknowledge them as a person. You look into their eyes and recognize who theyare and you can actually see the light come on in their eyes… They see that you seethem. That goes deep… oh, look at me; I am getting all emotional talking about this.”ELIZABETH GORDON, SEIU, PSW“Now I have to do more work in the same amount of time. Each senior now getsless time. I have one senior woman who only gets 1 hour a week. I keep saying sheneeds more, but no one is listening to me. This means that she only gets one batha week. She needs more. At least 3 baths a week. Not even nursing homes givebaths daily. In our union we are fighting for the right of seniors to 3 baths a week.Try and get the government to pay for that! Try and get the Community Care AccessCentre (CCAC) to pay for that!One client of mine would see me twice a week; on Tuesdays for 1 hour and on Fridaysfor 2 hours. Bathing both times, and on Friday I would also do her laundry. CCAChas changed that so now I only get 45 minutes to bath her. So, I have to rush thislady who is 86 years old. It is terrible to rush her at her age. And now another ladycomes in to clean. I feel in essence they are paying more. They have separated thework and narrowed down the work and the time allocated for it.”NICOLE FRANCIS, USW, RETIREMENT HOME WORKER“I have worked here in this retirement home for over 20 years. I work in the dietarydepartment. Overall we have less workers now compared to before. They are tryingto say that this facility is for independent living and is not a retirement home. Forexample, they used to have 3 ladies that worked in the morning and an extra personwould come and give baths, but they have cut that down, so now there are only 2ladies in the morning and they have to do the work of the other 2 ladies and nowthey are doing more work in less time.They have also changed the shifts so many people have lost hours and have becomemostly part-time. People have bills to pay so now they are looking outside for otherwork. So when someone calls in sick, there is no one available to take their shift.”CARMEN BARNWELL, SEIU, PSW“We have many more people with dementia, schizophrenia and Alzheimers thansay 20 years ago. So there is an increase in violence from some clients. They don’tunderstand why they have to do something and sometimes they don’t want to be‘rushed’. These situations are especially difficult when you are working alone insomeone’s house. There is a need for constant training and upgrading to deal withsuch complications and the complications of medications. A PSW today is nolonger a nurse’s aide; she does a whole host of complex healthcare tasks.”The insights and recommendations from PSWs are critical for improving the qualityof care for the seniors of the GTA. Unions provide an important avenue for women’scollective voices to inform policy, regulations and enforcement in health care. SEIU, aunion of PSWs and other health care workers has been lobbying the provincial governmenton key issues impacting the workers and this sector of healthcare.WORKING WOMEN, WORKING POOR 17