The Conseil provincial des affaires sociales (CPAS) of CUPE is outraged by news that 18,786 workers with the Montreal Island-East CIUSSS have gone without pay this week. The CIUSSS has still not pinpointed the source of the problem. In these times of runaway inflation, many are living from paycheque to paycheque, which makes for an extremely stressful situation.
“This blunder has not only affected close to 19,000 people but their families as well just as children are starting school. Employees are calling their local in tears. We’re cautioning the government over its Bill 15 that calls for the implementation of a single health care system across the province. Imagine what impact that would have if such were the case,” said CPAS president Maxime Sainte-Marie.
The affected employees work at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, the Santa Cabrini Hospital, the Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal, as well as in some long-care health care centres (CHSLD) and in CLSCs in Eastern Montreal.
“To date, the CIUSSS has not provided an explanation to all of the workers. A little bit of transparency wouldn’t hurt,” said Sainte-Marie.