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Eight PEI blood collection workers, all women, all part timers, have been on strike for close to eight months now. As Rankandfile reported in January, the women want a guaranteed minimum number of hours each week. That would allow them to qualify for benefits, and bring a bit of predictability into their daily lives. Their employer, Canadian Blood Services (CBS), isn’t budging. CBS is a not-for-profit, charitable organization operating everywhere in Canada except Quebec. Its sole mission is to manage the blood supply for Canadians. Its budget of roughly $1 billion is mostly provincial money.

No matter what happens, the significance of the strike extends well beyond PEI.  The Charlottetown workers are fighting the same issues CBS workers Canada-wide are facing. Not just workers, generous donors anywhere are also encountering obstacles when looking to donate blood. Some argue that CBS is in such a rush to cut costs that it even puts the safety of our blood supply in jeopardy.

CBS likes its workers part time and precarious, not just in PEI but anywhere in Canada. That was the consensus when unions representing CBS workers all across Canada met in Vancouver last fall, Mike Davidson tells Rankandfile.  Davidson is the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) national representative for three CBS Locals in New Brunswick. “If CBS had it their way, their clinics would  be all staffed by volunteers, and if they couldn’t have that, they’d settle for an entirely casual workforce,” says Davidson. Two of the New Brunswick locals have a few part-timers with guaranteed hours, and it has been an ongoing struggle to keep it that way, Davidson says.  In all of the three New Brunswick locals there are only three full-time unionized employees. “There is no stability. (CBS) doesn’t want stability,” says Davidson. “Meanwhile, they complain about a lack of commitment by the workers.

The Globe and Mail Mon Apr 27 2015

t was Feb. 20, 2014, and the medical director of Prince Edward Island's largest hospital was preparing to present a business case for abortion services to an independent medical advisory body for PEI, the only province in Canada where women still cannot get a surgical abortion. Then, Rosemary Henderson's phone rang: a call from Health PEI CEO Richard Wedge, telling her the health authority had been "explicitly told to cease work on the abortion project," Dr. Henderson wrote in an e-mail less than two weeks later. "I ignored that and took it to PMAC [the Provincial Medical Advisory Committee] anyway and have finished off my part of it and sent it up the chain. ... So it may die there." Dr. Henderson's prediction proved correct. The Liberal government of former premier Robert Ghiz killed the plan that she and a Health PEI-led working group had crafted for a twicemonthly abortion clinic at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown, according to documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws.

globeandmail.com Thu May 29 2014

Ashley Fraser was just 18 the night she stole away from Prince Edward Island, bound for the nearest abortion clinic. As a college student already raising a one-year-old boy on her own, Ms. Fraser felt she did not have the resources to care for a second child. But because PEI does not provide abortions, she had to drive to the Morgentaler clinic in Fredericton and pay out-of-pocket to end her pregnancy. "The worst part of it all was the struggle to get there," she recalled. That struggle shows no sign of easing for women seeking abortions in PEI or elsewhere in the Maritimes and rural Canada. The PEI government has quashed a proposal for a twice-monthly, hospital-based abortion clinic staffed by three out-of-province doctors, a decision that drew the president of the powerful Washington-based National Abortion Federation (NAF), which represents abortion clinics and providers, to Charlottetown on Wednesday for a news conference aimed at reviving the plan. Meanwhile, the Fredericton clinic that treated Ms. Fraser and sees several dozen PEI women every year will close on July 29, citing lack of funds. As a major international summit on maternal and child health gets under way in Toronto, and as politicians in Ottawa continue to debate the theoretical points of a sensitive issue - should Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau shut out new anti-abortion candidates? - the reality is that abortion services remain hard to find in Canada except in big cities.

Charlottetown – “After 14 months of bargaining, conciliation and bargaining again, the CUPE Provincial Health Council and Health PEI were able to reach a tentative collective agreement on October 29, 2014, which our members today have overwhelming supported and ratified”, says Bill McKinnon, National Representative for the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

This deal is a four year agreement expiring on March 31st, 2017 with wage adjustments over the four years totalling 8%. We were also able to obtain Maternity and Parental benefit top up, vacation improvements, as well as language surrounding wage continuation for members awaiting a decision on WCB claims, representing some of the more significant changes. Overall, it is a fair and reasonable settlement considering the economic realities in our world today”, concluded McKinnon.

PEI Health Accord Campaign - September 9th-21st

The Harper Conservatives want to privatize and dismantle our public health care system. The Conservatives will cut $144 million from health care funding for PEI !

February 17, 2015

Council of Canadians vice-chairperson Leo Broderick -- along with representatives from the PEI Health Coalition, the PEI Seniors’ Secretariat, the National Pensioners Federation, Unifor and the Canadian Health Coalition, as well as a community health worker -- recently wrote to Conservative MP Gail Shea, the Harper government's regional minister for PEI.

In their open letter to her, published in The Guardian newspaper, they write that they were in Ottawa in November and had "wanted to share information that we thought you would find important about the status of health care from the point of view of people living and working in your community, one of whom is a health care worker. Unfortunately you were unable to meet with us again this year and in your stead, you sent Steven Outhouse, an unelected staffer who has been criticized in the past for his 'indignant, trashing comments'..."

The RCW Environmental Scan Survey 2011 was developed as an environmental scan for the PEI Health Sector Council to acquire basic information on Resident Care Workers in Prince Edward Island.

Two separate surveys were developed, one for the workers themselves and the other for their employers in the public and private sectors.

'We are encouraging our fellow Islanders to not donate at the mobile clinic until we get back to work'

May 10, 2016

Striking Canadian Blood Services workers on P.E.I. are upset about mobile clinics being held in Miscouche later this month. The clinics May 16, 17 and 18 will be the first on the Island since the strike in Charlottetown began last fall.

Speaker lineup (so far):  Libby Davies, Member of Parliament for Vancouver East  Ellen Woodsworth, speaker, writer, activist and community organizer; former Vancouver City councillor Joyce Arthur, Executive Director of Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada  Barb Hestrin, Board President of Options for Sexual Health  Sharon Gregson, Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC Amy Fox, producer, activist, transgender  Speakers will highlight various Reproductive Justice issues, including the NB/PEI situation, affordable childcare, sexual health & rights issues in B.C., and access to reproductive healthcare for Aboriginals, the transgender community, and refugees.  Please bring: Your friends! And if you can, a sign to hold with your chosen message - anything related to Reproductive Justice needs for you or your community, or to show solidarity with NB and PEI.

May 5, 2015

The P.E.I. election is "a huge protest vote" with the NDP and the Greens taking 22 per cent of the popular vote, notes Charlottetown-based social justice activist Marian White.

Oct 8, 2015

primary care paramedic with CUPE 3324 in Charlottetown, PEI,

an unpaid internship for Advanced Care Paramedic training.

October 8, 2015

Trying to support a family while holding down several part-time jobs. Accepting short-term contracts without benefits. Working full time but earning wages so low your annual income falls below the poverty line. Trying to survive month to month on inadequate unemployment insurance or social assistance payments. This is what life is like for many Canadians. Unfortunately, the numbers of financially disadvantaged Canadians continues to grow as precarious employment becomes the new normal.  

More health-care related announcements expected this week

Apr 07, 2015

On his first day on the campaign trail, P.E.I. Liberal leader Wade MacLauchlan focused on health care and the Liberals plans to improve it, if elected.  During his first campaign stop in Hunter River, MacLauchlan said, "We are looking at putting on extra shifts so people can get tests in a more timely fashion, we are looking at an emphasis on health and wellness, and we are looking at the ways that other healthcare professionals can make a further contribution."  The Liberals say many Islanders face unacceptable wait times for specialists and surgeries.

Progressive Conservative Leader Rob Lantz announce's party's health platform

Apr 16, 2015

Progressive Conservative Leader Rob Lantz promises reforms to P.E.I.'s health-care system if his party is elected in the next provincial election, May 4. Lantz's announcement of his health-care platform at a Cornwall pharmacy Thursday included a couple of pocketbook promises. His brother and father are doctors and his sister-in-law Shelley Lantz is a nurse, so he says he's familiar with some of the ongoing needs and wants in P.E.I. health care.

Health PEI structure not guaranteed after two years of NDP government, says Leader Mike Redmond

Mar 24, 2015

The P.E.I. NDP is committed to a new provincial health accord, says leader Mike Redmond.

'There comes a point in everyone's life where they've paid enough taxes already' says NDP leader

Jan 27, 2016

The P.E.I. government is commissioning a review of health care services provided to Island seniors. In a request for proposals issued by the Department of Health and Wellness, the province says by the year 2020 the proportion of Islanders aged 65 and older is expected to exceed 21 per cent, where today it stands at 18.5 per cent.