CUPE Ontario and the Ontario Health Coalition are campaigning to stop home care privatization and build a public system.
Many home care contracts are set to expire March 31, and the provincial Liberals may lift a temporary ban on competitive bidding. The compulsory privatization policy was brought in by Conservative premier Mike Harris in the mid 1990s.
CUPE Ontario and the OHC have launched a province-wide media tour showing how privatization hurts home care patients and workers.
The tour kicked off in Brockville on Feb. 23. The health coalition and CUPE are showing a moving video featuring home care workers and patients.
The provincial Liberals have stopped and started competitive bidding several times since coming to power.
It’s time to make the ban permanent and work to build a public home care system, says CUPE.
Home care workers are mostly women and, in urban centres, often racialized women. They struggle with exploitative working conditions and low wages.
Home care workers regularly travel unpaid between patients, have shifts spread out over the course of the day and don’t have enough time to spend with each patient.
For more:
- Ontario Health Coalition 2008 expert panel on home care
- 2001 CUPE study on the costs of contracting out home care
- CUPE’s 2000 Annual Report on Privatization