The Fraser Institute has renewed its attack on health support workers, this time zeroing in on Ontario. The right-wing think tank has released a report that pushes the privatization of health support work, arguing that workers such as cleaners, cooks, nurses and medical support staff are overpaid compared to the private sector. The report goes on to blame health care workers for eating up hospital budgets.
The Fraser Institute report tries to devalue the work of health support workers, but the heroism of hospital staff during the recent SARS outbreak is still fresh for most people.
CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions has responded by pointing at the real reasons for rising health spending, including spiralling pharmaceutical costs and fat pay packages for hospital executives. OCHU also points to rising workloads and a shrinking workforce – evidence that fewer workers are shouldering more tasks.
Not coincidentally, the report was released during the recent first ministers’ conference on health care, and just as OCHU members are gearing up to bargain a new collective agreement. Several years ago the think tank released a report in British Columbia with an equally faulty analysis that compared hospital cooks and cleaners to hotel workers doing similar jobs.
