Sunday, August 29, 2021

Manitoba health-care support staff vote 97% in favour of strike action

Workers want protected benefits, wage bumps, rules around working conditions: CUPE

CBC News · Posted: Aug 25, 2021

A health-care worker holds a patient's hand. Health-care support staff in Manitoba have voted in favour of strike action. (Interstid/Shutterstock)

Health-care support staff from across Manitoba have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action, their union says.

Across Shared Health, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, the Northern Health Region and Southern Health, workers voted 97 per cent in favour of a strike mandate.

Shannon McAteer, health-care co-ordinator for the Canadian Union of Public Employees in Manitoba, said those workers have been without a contract for between four and five years.

Now, they're angry and frustrated.

"They feel that they've been touted as part of the health-care heroes. And now they don't feel like they're certainly being treated that way," McAteer said.

"They're done, quite frankly. They're exhausted. They're frustrated. They want some recognition. They want some acknowledgement of everything that they've gone through."

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Employees in Shared Health and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority voted 99 per cent in favour of strike action, while those in the Northern Health Region voted 98 per cent in favour, the union said in a news release.

In Southern Health, health-care support staff voted 92 per cent in favour.
Union still 'optimistic'

Voting started Aug. 18 and continued until noon on Wednesday. McAteer said talks at the bargaining table have been slow moving, but she hopes the strike mandate will help speed things along.

"We're optimistic and we're hopeful that the talks will continue ... in a fruitful manner and that we'll get to a collective agreement," she said.

"That's always the goal of any strike mandate is to ... ultimately not to have to go on strike. But if we have to, we will."

McAteer said the union is hoping for protections for benefits and pension plans, wage increases and better rules around safe working conditions — something that came up during the pandemic.

The union also asked for a similar agreement to the one the Manitoba Nurses Union came to with the province, where both parties agreed to go to binding arbitration without job action if bargaining is unsuccessful. McAteer said that request was denied.

Manitoba ICUs could be overwhelmed during 4th wave without more vaccinations, modelling suggests

"They wouldn't give it to us," she said.

"Support workers just want to be treated with the same respect and in the same way that the rest of health care is treated."

Those support workers include health-care aides, clerical staff, biomedical engineers and people working in dietary, laundry, trades and maintenance areas in health care.

More bargaining dates are set to take place in the fall, McAteer said.

With files from Caitlyn Gowriluk

Manitoba health-care support staff vote in favour of strike

Kayla Rosen

CTVNewsWinnipeg.ca Editorial Producer
Published Thursday, August 26, 2021

WINNIPEG -- Health-care support staff in the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA), Shared Health, Northern Regional Health Authority and Southern Health-Santé Sud have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action.

According to the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the union that represents the workers, the fact that these workers have been putting their lives at risk during the pandemic is not being recognized at the bargaining table.

“Right now, Manitoba has 18,000 health-care support staff who are exhausted and who feel disrespected by the government, despite being lauded as heroes,” said Debbie Boissonneault, President of CUPE 204, in a news release from Aug. 25.

“This is both an overwhelming mandate, and a scathing review of government’s inability to recognize health-care workers.”

Province-wide CUPE health-care workers voted 97 per cent in favour of a strike. However, when broken down by region the results are:

99 per cent of workers in the WRHA and Shared Health, represented by CUPE 204 and CUPE 500, voted in favour of strike action;

98 per cent of staff in the Northern Regional Health Authority, represented by CUPE 8600, voted in favour of strike action; and

92 per cent of those in Southern Health-Santé Sud, represented by CUPE 4270, voted in favour of strike action.

“It’s time for the provincial government to show leadership and recognize the sacrifice that health-care support workers have been making and immediately make settling health-care contracts a priority,” said Christine Lussier, president of CUPE 8600.

CUPE told CTV News Winnipeg they are still at the bargaining table and no strike date has been set. The union said they want the same deal the nurses got but are being offered less.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Shared Health said they are committed to negotiating a fair and long-term collective agreement for Manitoba’s health-care support staff.

“Unlike the status of ongoing negotiations with the Manitoba Nurses Union, the regular health care bargaining pattern means that negotiations with CUPE are still in early stages, with both sides continuing to work diligently through the comprehensive proposals associated with merging more than 100 collective agreements into just eight,” the statement said.

“We look forward to continuing this extensive collaborative work in the days ahead on shared goals that achieve the security of a fair agreement while addressing the needs of all Manitobans who rely on our health care system.

Required essential service agreements are part of the ongoing negotiations to guarantee continue staff coverage and care in any scenario so any operational impacts are minimal.”

Quebec labour minister steps in as meat plant strike could lead to euthanization of 150,000 pigs

Farmers say they may have no choice but to euthanize more than 150,000 pigs as dispute drags on

CBC News · Posted: Aug 25, 2021 9:09 AM ET | Last Updated: August 25

Quebec Labour Minister Jean Boulet says he's called a meeting between both sides of the ongoing labour dispute at the Olymel pork processing plant in the Beauce region. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

The strike at the Olymel slaughterhouse and pork processing plant in the Beauce is nearing its fourth month, and Quebec's labour minister says he's had enough.

On Wednesday, Jean Boulet took to social media and said he's called a meeting between representatives of both the employer and the union in hopes of finding a resolution.

"The situation is critical for pig farmers and we won't accept to go through another episode of food waste," Boulet said in a tweet.

"The [two] parties have to reach an agreement. It has to stop."

The labour dispute at the Olymel slaughterhouse and pork processing plant has been dragging on for nearly four months. (Sebastien Vachon/Radio-Canada)

About 1,100 workers at the plant in Vallée-Jonction, Que., have been on strike since late April.The factory is one of the largest in the province, receiving between 35,000 and 37,000 pigs every week.

Eleven days ago, 57 per cent of the workers rejected an agreement in principle the two parties had come to. Working conditions and salary are among the main sticking points.

The labour dispute is a nightmarish scenario for pork producers, who say they have been saddled with about 150,000 pigs they are unable to send to the slaughterhouse.

Farmers say they may have no choice but to euthanize them.

Either we make a deal or 500 jobs get cut, employer says

On Tuesday, Olymel issued an ultimatum to the union, threatening to abolish the evening shift at the plant if a deal isn't reached by Sunday.

Cutting that shift would result in 500 jobs lost.

"Four-month notices of termination would then be sent to the employees affected by this decision in accordance with the labour rules in Quebec," Olymel said in a press release.

Company spokesperson Richard Vigneault told CBC's Quebec AM that Olymel has come to agreements twice amid the dozens of conciliation meetings of the last four months, and it's time for the union to take responsibility for the impact of the prolonged dispute.

"We're working with living animals and we can't wait anymore," he said.

While the union responded that Olymel seems to be more concerned about pigs than its workers, Vigneault said it was time someone made a decision to move the negotiations forward.

He also said the company is still open to adjustments, but it cannot increase monetary offerings because that would compromise the plant's viability.

"Somebody has to be responsible somewhere, and it's not true that we can run a facility that is losing money because people are demanding, demanding, demanding," Vigneault also said.

Quebec pork producers frustrated as labour dispute between Olymel and union drags on

The union representing the workers — which is affiliated with the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) — said it believes negotiation is still a viable path toward resolution.

"It's not the first time Olymel decided to threaten its workers of closing down and try to divide members of the union by making them fear job cuts," said Martin Maurice, the union's president.

"We showed up [to meetings] with the special mediator with the intention of negotiating a new deal in good faith."

Maurice also said the failure of negotiations cannot be put on the backs of workers and the union, when nearly 15 nears of difficult working conditions and few pay increases are what caused the issue to come to a head.

With files from Radio-Canada's Colin Côté-Paulette and CBC's Quebec AM

News anchor Ana Todevska welcomed the viewers to “the first live edition of TV Alfa news” after the strike on Friday, August 20, 2021. Photo by Global Voices, CC-BY.

This story by D. Mishev was originally published by CIVIL Today, an English edition of the media platform CIVIL Media. An edited version of the translation by Natаša Cvetkovska is republished here with permission of CIVIL – Center for Freedom.

For four days, from August 16 to August 19, the employees of TV Alfa, a private television station with national broadcasting concession in North Macedonia, conducted a partial strike by reducing the format of newscasts – they were conducted without live stream from the studio and using only archive footage.

This move came after the the employees sent a letter to the management and the shareholders of TV Alfa on August 11, demanding payment of their salaries and other expenses. The letter contained a warning that the cameramen would stop going on the ground from August 16, and that the information content would be reduced to ten minutes.

Since that day, each TV Alfa news cast begun with a black screen showing the following announcement:

The black screen with the information about the partial strike shown before Alfa TV newscasts. Screen capture by CIVIL, used with permission.

Dear viewers of TV Alfa,
Due to the situation of our and yours TV station Alfa, we are forced to reduce the news to ten minutes, without video and audio material, and the same also refers to other information programs. Such format will continue until the situation has been overcome.
We thank you for your understanding.

The reason for this, as was said in the warning letter, signed by the “Employees in TV Alfa”, is the delay of two salaries, health insurance and fees for three months, which “causes revolt among the employees”.

Leaked letter by employees of TV Alfa addressed to manager Jani Bojadzi, demanding payment of salaries and warning about upcoming strike. Photo by CIVIL Media, used with permission. Click on image for larger version.

According to the leaked letter obtained by CIVIL Media, at the August 11 meeting, which had been attended by most of the employees, a decision had been made for “taking the first steps to protect their elementary rights.”

The employees held the emergency meeting a day after the deadline set by the Alfa TV manager for payment of “three monthly salaries, two honoraria and related health insurance benefits,” because that promise remained unfulfilled.

CIVIL Media tried to contact TV Alfa management, in order to obtain information about the newly-created situation, but nobody answered the telephone number posted on their Facebook page.

The strike seem to have ended by Friday, February 20, when at the 9:30 am morning news cast, the anchor Ana Todevska welcomed the viewers stressing that they are watching “the first live edition of TV Alfa news.” No further official explanation was given in regard to the situation and return to the usual format of the program coverage.

The recordings of the news items from the strike period, containing the black screen with employees’ warning message, have been removed from the Alfa TV news YouTube channel.

A history of controversies

In February 2021, TV Alfa was part of a scandal related to the misuse of taxpayer money from the state fund for mitigation of the economic effects of COVID-19 pandemic, providing subsidies to companies to supplement salaries of their workers.

On February 8, CIVIL Media reported that documents made public under government policies for increased transparency indicated that TV Alfa was among the companies that received state assistance, but did not pay salaries to their employees.

According to the list published on the website of the government, Alfa TV received state support of 22,328 US dollars (1,175,820 Macedonian denars) for the month of December 2020 to supplement the salaries for 102 employees. However government audit found out that the money were not paid to the workers by that time.

In addition, it emerged that the company-owner of TV Alfa was accused of tax evasion, as Prizma , a Macedonian language website run by the Balkan Investigative Network (BIRN) reported at the end of march this year.

Previously, in 2018 much was written also about Oliveri oil company and the multi-million scheme, for financing black propaganda aimed against the Macedonian European integration.

At the time, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) reported that “Hungarians with links to the country’s pro-government media have embarked on a mass buy-up of news outlets in Macedonia, part of what appears to be a concerted push into the Balkans by media companies loyal to right-wing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.”

Another country targeted with Hungarian media investment surge besides North Macedonia is Slovenia, where it aided the efforts of right-wing government led by Orban's ally Janez Jansha to undermine free media.

Two years later, in early 2020, both BIRN and OCCRP published accounts of independent journalist investigations showing that a little known Hungarian company supposedly selling olive oil and trinkets like refrigerator magnets “pumped over 3.2 million euros into his North Macedonian media network under the guise of questionable advertising purchases.”

CIVIL media monitoring, as well as the European Parliament report Mapping Fake News an Disinformation in the Western Balkans and Identifying Ways to Effectively Counter Them, have noted that TV Alfa often publishes politically biased disinformation. This includes slander and insults against organizations for human rights and freedoms, and against journalists, including numerous attacks against CIVIL and its individual members.

Despite this, CIVIL expressed solidarity with the demands for respecting the worker’s rights of media workers in TV Alfa.

As noted in the study on COVID-19 related disinformation in North Macedonia by Metamorphosis Foundation, in 2020 TV Alfa content was used to disseminate confusing and unfounded claims about the pandemic across the Balkans, as reported by Serbian fact-checking service Istinomer. Тhe Critical Thinking for Mediawise Citizens – Crithink project reported that Alfa TV promoted distrust of government anti-pandemic measures including the contract tracing mobile application StopKorona! through a late night talk show. Al Jazeera reported that that campaign was run in collusion with a troll army linked to right wing political parties.

During the period of state capture 2010-2017, the right wing regime run by the political party VMRO-DPMNE led by then-Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski was especially generous towards TV Alfa. The government siphoned over 26 million euros taxpayers money into private media during that period , with 95 percent of this amount ending up on the accounts of three TV stations with national broadcasting concessions: Sitel, Kanal 5 and TV Alfa.

Gruevski was later convicted of corruption and fled to Hungary, under protection of Orban, where he received political asylum. He had taken an undisclosed amount of money from the country and has recently registered a company there.

This post is part of Advox, a Global Voices project dedicated to protecting freedom of expression online. All Posts

Written byGuest Contributor

A new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) highlighted the negative social and environmental impact of the Lower Sesan 2 hydroelectric dam in northeastern Cambodia.

The dam located in the Mekong River Basin was built as part of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with a budget of approximately 800 million US dollars. It opened in 2018, and its main operator is China’s Huaneng Group.

The dam is a major BRI project in Cambodia, reflecting the close relationship between China and Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled the country for more than three decades. Journalists in Cambodia said they have encountered difficulties accessing information about BRI projects.

The 137-page HRW report titled “Underwater: Human Rights Impacts of a China Belt and Road Project in Cambodia” was released on August 10, 2021. The research started in 2019 and involved interviews with more than 60 community members, civil society leaders, academics, scientists, and other project stakeholders.

The report mentioned that around 4,500 to 5,000 houses belonging to villagers near Sesan and Srepok Rivers were submerged due to the dam. It identified Indigenous groups and other ethnic minorities affected by the project, including the Bunong, Brao, Kuoy, Lao, Jarai, Kreung, Kavet, Tampuan, and Kachok communities.

HRW said the Cambodian government and its Chinese partner have failed to provide safeguards or properly compensate residents who were forced to leave their communities. HRW quoted a Bunong villager saying

The company didn’t consider Indigenous rights. They just told us to move. In the consultation, they determined things for us. They didn’t ask us what we want or need.

The dam also cut off the traditional migration routes of native fish in the Mekong River. HRW’s Asia advocacy director John Sifton summed up the destructive impact of the dam:

Today, everything the dammed-up rivers provided – food, water, an income from fishing – is gone.
…the compensation that was offered did not match the value of what they actually lost: fruit trees that were decades old, villages that they and their ancestors had lived in for generations, fields, graves, and religious shrines.

Government response

Responding to the HRW report, government spokesman Phay Siphan insisted that the dam is beneficial to Cambodians:

The development of Sesan 2 Dam is providing income to people. After moving, they got better houses and land than their old houses.
It supports the economy of Stung Treng province and country’s economy by generating electricity to serve the industry, enterprises and factories as a source of employment for the people in the province and as part of boosting the national economy.

He added that through the project, aid was extended to affected communities by building 118 houses, 471 wooden houses, 127 self-construction budgets, 63 ponds, 12 schools, 12 kindergartens, two commune halls, three pagodas, two police stations, a military post, and 181 water wells in new settlements.

Environment Ministry spokesman Neth Pheaktra emphasized that many Cambodians support the dam project because it addresses the country’s demand for renewable energy sources:

This is what Cambodians want but extremist human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch want Cambodians to continue using kerosene lamps in the 21st century.

Suos Yara, a member of the National Assembly, accused HRW of having “naked political bias, and dubious research methodology.” He wrote that the people interviewed by HRW do not represent the views of the majority of local residents affected by the project:

This sample size is too small and inadequate to be generalised in this kind of in-depth environmental study. Moreover, HRW failed to interview the vast majority of locals who have received fair compensation for their relocations and whose livelihoods have benefited from the construction of 12 schools, 12 kindergartens and numerous other public facilities created by the dam project.

His comments were republished by the Chinese state media outlet Global Times.

The response of Cambodian authorities was echoed by various agencies. Even the Cambodian Embassy in Turkey has released a statement about the HRW report:

Early reports about the dam

The HRW report confirmed what many groups and campaigners have been saying about the dam for many years. Residents and activists have been protesting about the project since 2017.

Environment news website Mongabay quoted 29-year-old Dam Samnang in 2017 about opposition against the dam in his community:

It provides no direct benefits to people in this community, it will destroy all our houses, and it will ruin the river system so that we can never come back.
Our ancestors are buried here and if they flood the area we will not be able to come back and visit them. I can’t put a (monetary) value on graves, but if the Prime Minister’s family graves have value, then why don’t ours?
This dam will be a disaster for us; our destiny is in trouble. They say they want to develop Cambodia, so why do they destroy our homes?

Phnom Penh Post newspaper published a report in 2017 quoting Srang Choeun, a villager in Kabal Romeas, about his family’s refusal to leave their land:

Now we live in Kabal Romeas collectively, we are united as a community by our common ownership of the land. But if we agree to relocate then we will accept private property, we will own land like the Khmer people.

Khmer refers to the ethnic majority in Cambodia.

Another villager, Kem Reoun, disclosed the harassment he and his community faced when threatened with displacement:

Authorities have been restricting villagers from their daily tasks, such as leaving the village to go to the market. In short, authorities do not allow people to leave the village. There are people guarding every gate, and they have dismantled a bridge.

There were reports about the hardships experienced by residents forced to leave their flooded ancestral lands two years after the dam completion. Even relocation sites were flooded, and settlers blamed the dam for causing a shortage of clean water.

Writer Horn Chanvoitey also probed the supposed benefits of the dam and the promises made by Cambodian officials to local communities.

Two years after the dam officially began operating, its benefits remain highly contested.

This story is part of a Civic Media Observatory investigation into competing narratives about China’s Belt and Road Initiative and explores how societies and communities hold differing perceptions of potential benefits and harms of Chinese-led development. To learn more about this project and its methods, click here.

Written byMong Palatino

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment

Sunday, August 29, 2021

Quebec labour minister steps in as meat plant strike could lead to euthanization of 150,000 pigs

Farmers say they may have no choice but to euthanize more than 150,000 pigs as dispute drags on

Either we make a deal or 500 jobs get cut, employer says