Dozens of supporters joined Willingdon Park care aides - the first health care workers delivering direct patient care to have their jobs contracted out in B.C. - at a Saturday morning rally to voice their opposition to this latest threat to public health care and the risk it presents for seniors in long-term care facilities.
The care aides, members of the Hospital Employees’ Union (CUPE), have been campaigning against the privatizing of their work - bathing, grooming, dressing and feeding the 95 seniors who live in this privately operated, but publicly funded, facility.
As evidenced by the 10,000-name petition presented to Burnaby council last week, the campaign to support quality seniors’ care and stop the privatization of direct patient care is gaining momentum and community wide support.