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Henri Giroux the president of CUPE 146 says the front line staff at Cassellholme want to work with the different municipalities to keep the home public.

In recent years, CUPE’s CPAS has run a major campaign for its members who are “care enablers.” The sector purchased an ambulance that flies its colours and has a big impact at demonstrations. That was another of Beaulieu’s ideas, achieved through his well-known tenacity. “I choose my battles, but when I believe in something, I follow through on it.”

"It shows that people here really care about the Miramichi and it's too bad that politicians don't care about it as much," Driscoll said. "They want to privatize the nursing homes, they want to cut to the Education Department, their cutting the highway budgets and they're cutting to every service they can think of, so where are we going to go? They don't seem to think that matters." The Liberal government, come the fall, is expected to have a deal in place that will see all hospital food and cleaning services being outsourced to a private firm.

Government officials, including Health Minister Victor Boudreau have maintained that the changes are needed in order to help the province get its finances in order and will save the province millions of dollars through efficiencies that will be brought in under private management. Driscoll says those efficiencies, CUPE fears, are simply going to amount to job cuts at hospitals throughout the Horizon Health Network. The union learned from the province earlier in the summer that food and facilities management giants like Sodexo, Aramark and Compass Group are involved in the bidding process.

"If they privatize these services, then these corporations are going to come in and say 'you don't need all these people' ... we're going to cut because they're going to want to make at least a 20 per cent profit. Driscoll said the hospital is just one example of the trend toward the greater privatization of public services the union is seeing. Nursing home workers at Mount St. Joseph Nursing Home and the Miramichi Senior Citizens Home have been protesting at various points throughout the summer after learning the Department of Social Development would be using a private-public partnership (P3) model in building a new 280-bed nursing home that will replace both of the city's current facilities, which are run by a volunteer board of directors. Workers at both homes will have to reapply for positions at the new nursing home if that's what they choose to do and, with a private company running things, the membership has said it is concerned that those who do catch on at the new place could be subject to reduced pay and benefits.

The government is expected to open up a request for proposals (RFP) in the coming weeks to begin the process of determining which proponent will build and operate what will likely be New Brunswick's largest nursing home by the time it opens. Currently, each of the three privately run nursing homes in the province are owned by Shannex. The unions have also warned that the move to a P3 model would lead to a reduction in the level of community outreach programming offered to local seniors through things like Meals on Wheels and adult daycare. Tourism Minister Bill Fraser, the Liberal Miramichi MLA who advocated heavily for the new nursing home to be built and the man at the centre of much of the unions' ire, has shot down those concerns in previous interviews. Fraser has reiterated that regardless of whichever proponent emerges with the right to build and manage the structure, the initiative represents a major upgrade in terms of nursing home infrastructure.

He said the standards of care are dictated by the province and will remain, at the very least, on par with what has existed at the two current nursing homes over the last several years. Programs like Meals on Wheels, adult daycare and lifeline, would remain in place and potentially even enhanced and in terms of jobs, he said there will be provisions written into the RFP asking that priority be given to local applicants and that with an increase of 26 beds, even more staff will likely be required. As for pay and benefits, he said staff at two of the three Shannex properties have already unionized and the third was in the process of doing that.

Nursing home staff have called on the province to force the boards at the Mount and the senior citizens home to amalgamate together and operate the new facility using a model similar to what was undertaken in Edmundston when two nursing home boards melded into one in order to operate the new $48 million, 180-bed Residence Jodin. Danny Legere, the president of CUPE New Brunswick, was on hand for the vigil and urged the Miramichi workers to keep up the fight. "I want to congratulate the people of the Miramichi for taking a stand - the fight that you have started is a fight for all New Brunswickers," Legere said. "The militancy that you are showing is exemplary and it has to be carried on from one end of the province from one end to the other."

Andy Hardy, a Miramichi native and the president of CUPE 1190, said his sector is used to certain services being contracted out to private interests but when it comes to health and senior care, he said it was "flat out wrong." "You're looking after the most vulnerable people in that building right there," Hardy said. "When you privatize the food services and the cleaning services all it is is for profit - the service goes down and the profit goes up, and for nursing homes as well." Length: 1090 words

There are far fewer emergency room visits," she says. "This means that in privatizing a long-term care home, a municipality is likely to be transferring higher costs to the health-care system. "They are actually creating more costs for taxpayers, while also reducing publicly held assets." Braedley will be the guest speaker at a CUPE-hosted community forum June 7 in North Bay. The forum will be held at 7 p.m. at the Discovery North Bay Museum.

A number of other locals joined in on the demonstration, including representation from CUPE 1277 and 1256 of the Miramichi Senior Citizens Home and Mount St. Joseph Nursing Home, respectively, CUPE 1190, which acts on behalf New Brunswick's highway workers, the New Brunswick Federation of Labour and staff from Hebert's Recycling.

"If they privatize these services, then these corporations are going to come in and say 'you don't need all these people' ... we're going to cut because they're going to want to make at least a 20 per cent profit. Driscoll said the hospital is just one example of the trend toward the greater privatization of public services the union is seeing. Nursing home workers at Mount St. Joseph Nursing Home and the Miramichi Senior Citizens Home have been protesting at various points throughout the summer after learning the Department of Social Development would be using a private-public partnership (P3) model in building a new 280-bed nursing home that will replace both of the city's current facilities, which are run by a volunteer board of directors. Workers at both homes will have to reapply for positions at the new nursing home if that's what they choose to do and, with a private company running things, the membership has said it is concerned that those who do catch on at the new place could be subject to reduced pay and benefits.

The Liberal government, come the fall, is expected to have a deal in place that will see all hospital food and cleaning services being outsourced to a private firm. Government officials, including Health Minister Victor Boudreau have maintained that the changes are needed in order to help the province get its finances in order and will save the province millions of dollars through efficiencies that will be brought in under private management. Driscoll says those efficiencies, CUPE fears, are simply going to amount to job cuts at hospitals throughout the Horizon Health Network. The union learned from the province earlier in the summer that food and facilities management giants like Sodexo, Aramark and Compass Group are involved in the bidding process.

The government is expected to open up a request for proposals (RFP) in the coming weeks to begin the process of determining which proponent will build and operate what will likely be New Brunswick's largest nursing home by the time it opens. Currently, each of the three privately run nursing homes in the province are owned by Shannex. The unions have also warned that the move to a P3 model would lead to a reduction in the level of community outreach programming offered to local seniors through things like Meals on Wheels and adult daycare. Tourism Minister Bill Fraser, the Liberal Miramichi MLA who advocated heavily for the new nursing home to be built and the man at the centre of much of the unions' ire, has shot down those concerns in previous interviews. Fraser has reiterated that regardless of whichever proponent emerges with the right to build and manage the structure, the initiative represents a major upgrade in terms of nursing home infrastructure.

He said the standards of care are dictated by the province and will remain, at the very least, on par with what has existed at the two current nursing homes over the last several years. Programs like Meals on Wheels, adult daycare and lifeline, would remain in place and potentially even enhanced and in terms of jobs, he said there will be provisions written into the RFP asking that priority be given to local applicants and that with an increase of 26 beds, even more staff will likely be required. As for pay and benefits, he said staff at two of the three Shannex properties have already unionized and the third was in the process of doing that.

Nursing home staff have called on the province to force the boards at the Mount and the senior citizens home to amalgamate together and operate the new facility using a model similar to what was undertaken in Edmundston when two nursing home boards melded into one in order to operate the new $48 million, 180-bed Residence Jodin. Danny Legere, the president of CUPE New Brunswick, was on hand for the vigil and urged the Miramichi workers to keep up the fight. "I want to congratulate the people of the Miramichi for taking a stand - the fight that you have started is a fight for all New Brunswickers," Legere said. "The militancy that you are showing is exemplary and it has to be carried on from one end of the province from one end to the other."

Andy Hardy, a Miramichi native and the president of CUPE 1190, said his sector is used to certain services being contracted out to private interests but when it comes to health and senior care, he said it was "flat out wrong." "You're looking after the most vulnerable people in that building right there," Hardy said. "When you privatize the food services and the cleaning services all it is is for profit - the service goes down and the profit goes up, and for nursing homes as well." © 2015 Telegraph-Journal (New Brunswick)