BLACK ROCK, N.S. — A Black Rock long-term care worker has added his voice to a campaign speaking out against provincial funding cuts that “impact the most vulnerable people in society.”
Jason Langille, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 1472 president and the regional vice president for the long-term care sector in the Dartmouth area, said CUPE Nova Scotia’s More Caring Hands Campaign focuses on the provincial government and cutbacks made to long-term care funding.
Langille and other long-term care workers across the province are appearing in YouTube videos to raise public awareness of budget cuts and to send government a message. Langille said he can sense the frustration on the part of clients, their family members and his co-workers. He said caregivers don’t want to strike and withhold services because their clients are their number-one priority.
“We’re talking about people’s lives here,” Langille said. “We’re trying to stand up for the families and we’re trying to stand up for the clients that we serve.”
A residential rehabilitation worker (RRW), Langille said it has always been important to him to help others. He has worked in long-term care for 23 years and has been a part of community options, helping people with mental and physical challenges in their day-to-day lives. He said he’s seen a lot of changes.
“The McNeil government has cut back $6.2 million out of long-term care,” Langille said.
He wants to stress the point that the long-term care sector is in a staffing crisis. Langille said the provincial government has enacted several pieces of “union-busting legislation” such as Bill 148. He said the legislation has essentially capped wages and the provincial government seems unwilling to work with public sector unions. Langille said he and his colleagues have been working without a contract for more than four years.
“This government has launched war against the public sector workers in this province,” Langille said. “These are services that we all need.”
He said the quality of care – and therefore the quality of life – of long-term care clients has gone down as the result of less money being invested. There is higher staff turnover and there has been “a casualization” of the workforce as government won’t commit to funding over the long-term.
Langille said he takes a lot of pride in the fact that he works for the public and for the betterment of people. He doesn’t think the public will stand for continuing cut backs to long-term care.
“I think the parents and the family members, and the community members, are not going to stand for the most vulnerable people in society to not be taken care of properly at the national standard level,” Langille said.
Langille said our people deserve the same level of care that is being provided in other provinces. He said, to his mind, if people in Nova Scotia aren’t being cared for at the national standard, it’s a form of discrimination based on geography or population.
RELATED:
