Tuesday's letters: Unjust to target health support workers' pay
Our premier and ministers should visit a hospital and observe how cleaning staff wear layers of PPE, push the cleaning carts, change gloves every 10 minutes or so, and clean the premises without interrupting other health professionals. It is those health staff who kept the virus away. And how dare you cut the wage of the lowest-paid health staff.
© Provided by Edmonton Journal Health-care workers stage a wildcat strike at University of Alberta Hospital on Oct. 26, 2020, to protest job cuts announced by the Alberta government.
People who work as supportive staff in health choose to work in such jobs not by choice, but by chance. They may have wanted to have well-paid jobs or run their own business, but may not have had the facilities and support.
Most cleaning staff, as well as many supportive staff in health services, are new immigrants. They are working hard, most often in more than one low-paid job, to put food on their table and raise their children.
Newcomers start from zero financial assets, with all challenges of starting afresh. Many newcomers are underemployed, given the challenges of credential equivalency, language, and different work environments.
We can find former engineers, school principals and doctors in the cleaning staff. And while they strive to find life here, the government is taking a portion of their incomes now. It is totally unjust, unfair, and inhumane. Government needs to look at the historical and social context of the affected people, inter alia, while taking such decisions.
Baiju Vareed, Edmonton
People who work as supportive staff in health choose to work in such jobs not by choice, but by chance. They may have wanted to have well-paid jobs or run their own business, but may not have had the facilities and support.
Most cleaning staff, as well as many supportive staff in health services, are new immigrants. They are working hard, most often in more than one low-paid job, to put food on their table and raise their children.
Newcomers start from zero financial assets, with all challenges of starting afresh. Many newcomers are underemployed, given the challenges of credential equivalency, language, and different work environments.
We can find former engineers, school principals and doctors in the cleaning staff. And while they strive to find life here, the government is taking a portion of their incomes now. It is totally unjust, unfair, and inhumane. Government needs to look at the historical and social context of the affected people, inter alia, while taking such decisions.
Baiju Vareed, Edmonton
UCP has a problem with women
The pay cut for nurses is sadly, not about fixing the mess the UCP created, but another dogfight with those that the UCP think they can beat down. Mostly likely, because we are weary and proportionally women.
The UCP gave $9 billion to male dominated industries and is attempting a five-per-cent pay cut to a female-dominated profession.
It goes much deeper than this recent brawl. We had a cabinet minister fired because she spoke out. A male MLA was booted out of caucus for failure to do his constituency work and speaking out against Kenney. In a glaring double standard, this MLA has been brought back into the UCP fold with arms wide open.
The UCP is dragging its feet on an opportunity to assist families with much needed daycare support. A Sky Palace meeting with the inner circle of men. Even the ministry of energy was not at the table. The MLA responsible for women’s issues is so far removed from what women need and aspire to, he may just need to reach out to a “higher authority” to assist him and Kenney.
The UCP performance on women’s issues is dismal. My only question for the premier is, what is your deal with women?
Shelley O’Neill, Whitecourt
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