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the impact of Liberal health-care policy in southern Ontario is "bad enough." The model Mehra said the province is using to centralize services into fewer communities is especially detrimental to the North. "That doesn't work for the south," she added. "It definitely, in no way, works for Northern Ontario." The state of Northern health care was brought to the floor of Queen's Park this week when, on Wednesday during Question Period, NDP health critic France Gélinas called on the government to stop continued cuts to care in the region. Funding based on volumes doesn't jibe with regional population distributions, Mehra said. "It just doesn't make any sense at all," she said, adding Northern Ontario has many common complaints with small, rural southern Ontario communities.

The coalition argues the entire Ontario system has received short shrift for years and is below the Canadian per capita average by about $350 per person. The provincial Liberals ended a four-year hospital base funding freeze in its latest budget, pledging to spend $60 million on hospital budgets, along with $75 million for palliative care and $130 million for cancer care. The Ontario Health Coalition - and Sault and Area Health Coalition - are not impressed. The local group argues on a regular bases, 22 admitted patients often wait in SAH's Emergency Department for inpatient beds and admitted patients stay in emergency for as long as five days. Patients are lined along hallways on the floors or put in areas that were designed to be stretcher storage areas or lounges with no call buttons, oxygen, out of the nurses' usual treatment areas. Late last month, the Ontario Health Coalition launched an Ontario-wide, unofficial referendum to raise awareness about what it contends is a system in critical condition. The unofficial referendum asks Ontarians if they're for or against the idea: "Ontario's government must stop the cuts to our community hospitals and restore services, funding and staffto meet our communities' needs for care." Ballot boxes will be distributed to businesses, workplaces and community

centres across the province before May 28, when votes will be tallied and presented to Premier Kathleen Wynne. "We have to make it so visible, and so impossible to ignore, the widespread public opposition to the cuts to local public hospitals so the province cannot continue to see all those cuts through," Mehra said. Similar public OHC-led lobbying helped limit and "significantly" change policy in a past Sault Area Hospital bid to usher in publicprivate partnerships (P3s), she added. "The referendum is a way to make that so visible, so impossible to ignore by the provincial government, that we actually stop the cuts," Mehra said. Other speakers Thursday included Sault coalition member Peter Deluca, who spoke of the many challenges his elderly parents have endured thanks to what he dubbed less-than-stellar hospital experiences. "We deserve the truth, we deserve answers, not just political talk," said Deluca, adding concerned citizens must band together in order to prompt change and halt healthcare cuts.

Sharon Richer, of Ontario Council of Hospital Unions/CUPE, said as a Health Sciences North employee, she's seen "first-hand" how cuts affect health care. "There won't be change if we don't make a ripple," she said. Laurie Lessard-Brown, president of Unifor Local 1359, told the meeting of how SAH's recent "wiping out" of the personal support worker classification is wreaking havoc on staff and patients, alike. Registered nurses and registered practical nurse must now pick up the slack, she added. "Morale is lowest I've ever seen," Lessard-Brown said. And, as recent as last Tuesday, Unifor learned of a further four full-time RPN positions being cut while supervisor positions were being added. "Cutting front-line workers is not acceptable," Lessard-Brown said. jougler@postmedia.com On Twitter: @JeffreyOugler © 2016 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved.

Natalie Mehra, Ontario Health Coalition executive director, decries what she describes as the profound lack of funding being divvied out to Ontario hospitals during a town hall meeting Thursday evening, hosted by the Sault and Area Health Coalition at Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 25.

oronto – From across Ontario representatives from dozens of communities facing devastating cuts to their community hospitals carted thousands of ballots to the Ontario Legislature. The votes – 93,840 of them as of last night – were cast in a province-wide voluntary “referendum” on Saturday May 28 and in lead-in advance polls held in the last two weeks. Since last night the coalition has received hundreds more votes, putting the total over 94,000. Hundreds of votes continue to be sent in to the coalition every few hours. To put the size of the vote in perspective, a very large petition presented to the Legislature might have 20,000 signatures at most.

“one thing is clear — the coalition they are discussing is between the Liberals and the NDP, to supplant a Conservative minority.’’

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has been stick handling around the idea of a coalition with the NDP if the Conservatives win a minority in October.

Trudeau has said he’d “maybe, but maybe not’’ be open to a coalition with the NDP if Tom Mulcair wasn’t leader of the party.

Meanwhile, Mulcair has said he’s open to a coalition if it’s necessary to defeat Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.

"Hospitals across the Southeast LHIN face a devastating restructuring plan that's all about cuts and centralizing services," said Mehra. Mehra described relocating complex continuing care beds to TMH as nothing more than a smokescreen. Retaining cataract surgery at TMH is also misleading. "The plan is to elimin

ate cataract surgeries at hospitals and move the service to private clinics," she same. The same goes for complex continuing care beds. Mehra said the ultimate plan is to relocate those beds to facilities outside hospitals. "Another kicker is losing half the acute care beds at TMH," said Mehra.

Mehra said other hospital across the province are, and have faced, a similar pattern to what's taking place at TMH. She also noted that hospitals in Ontario are chronically under-funded compared to other provinces. Mehra said hospitals in Welland, Fort Erie, Port Colborne, Niagara on the Lake and Niagara Falls are being gutted and face possible closure. Hospitals in those communities are part of the Niagara Health System.

"The first phase includes removing, diagnostics, surgical services and acute care beds, followed by replacing emergency rooms with urgent care centres," said Mehra. The final phase is closure. Mehra said amalgamated hospital systems have never worked. She used Quinte Health Care and the resulting yearly service cuts at TMH as a prime example.

"The current funding model has never worked. It means those hospitals face deficits every year. Virtually all hospital are under stress because the plan is to reduce the scope of services, resulting in the fact that residents will have to travel a lot further," said Mehra. The end result is that smaller hospitals inside large amalgamations are being "completely" gutted. But the local community, said Mehra, shouldn't give up hope. The Coalition has kept a watchful eye on Quinte West and Brighton, and its community hospital.

"Our TMH has done a fantastic job of generating great ideas that are constructive. They have great integrity and have done a great job of rallying the community," said Mehra. On that front, Mehra said the idea of a one-stop health centre and community operated hospital with inpatient beds has the potential to provide a "robust" range of care to tens of thousands of residents. Mehra said a proposed veteran's care centre is a natural extension of that plan. The idea has received attention from national party leaders during the federal election campaign.

But is that enough to convince the province, and those bureaucrats in charge at the LHIN and QHC? Ultimately, said Mehra, it depends on how hard the community pushes its agenda. De-amalgamating from larger hospital corporations wouldn't be precedent setting.

Mehra said smaller hospitals in Georgetown and St. Joe's Island (near Sault Ste. Marie) have successfully divorced from larger corporations. "But it's up to the community to raise a huge stink with the province and present a good plan," said Mehra. Mehra suggested Trenton Memorial, if it were locally owned and operated, form a coalition with other independently run hospitals such as Napanee, Campbellford or Northumberland.

"The bottom line is people have to fight for what they want. They have to stand up and be heard," said Mehra. Local organizers want that fight to continue in Trenton on Nov. 13. -The Trentonian

Allan said similar provincewide campaigns have had significant impacts in the past, such as stopping health-care privatization plans. He said the most recent referendum the Ontario coalition organized pertained to allowing private clinics to conduct some hospital surgeries, "and we collected 100,000 votes on an issue that I don't think is quite as well known as the cuts to our hospitals." "This is a much bigger issue, and I think we can get an even bigger vote," Allan said. "We need to collect the votes, send them offto the legislature, we need to do it collectively right across the province and send a very loud message. I think we can send an extremely loud message in Port Colborne because of the circumstances that we're looking at here." The meeting was organized to discuss the provincial government's plans to close hospitals in Port Colborne, Welland and Fort Erie and replace them with a single new hospital in Niagara Falls.

Niagara Health System in an e-mail to The Tribune Tuesday said Angela Zangari, executive vice-president and project lead, and NHS president Suzanne Johnston "have been across all NHS sites over the past few weeks sharing the preferred designs for a new south hospital at Lyons Creek and Montrose roads and a new ambulatory care/urgent care and longterm care development in Welland at King and Third streets. "We believe it is important to share information with our staff, many of whom have been engaged in planning activity for the projects. "Dr. Johnston is committed to working with staffto discuss planning on a regular basis. In addition she will be continuing to meet with community leaders to plan forward." At Wednesday' night's coalition meeting, several residents shared concerns about access to health-care services, including Aubrey Foley. "I don't want to offend anyone from Welland, but I live in Port Colborne, my hospital is in Port Colborne and this is where it should remain," the 71-year-old said.

He said his city of 19,000 people has a "deplorable walk-in service for health care." "It is not acceptable. There is no reason for it to be the way it is today," he said, while noting Dunnville, a town of 11,000 people, has a "fully functional hospital with free parking." "If Dunnville can do that, we can do this very easily," Foley said. Former mayor and regional councillor Bob Saracino said he will do whatever he can to save the Welland hospital, but the community must also work together to keep the urgent care centre running in Port Colborne. "When it comes to health, we must be one," he said.

Saracino said health care "is not a privilege, but it is a fundamental right that we have under the Canada Health Act." While Hotte said she agrees Niagara Falls needs a new hospital, "it should not be at the expense of people in Port Colborne, Welland, Wainfleet, Pelham - over 94,000 people losing access to hospital services." "No way! We need to keep the hospitals open and access to services," Hotte said.

About 80 people attend Wednesday night's meeting at Guild Hall about the planned closure of Port Colborne hospital. • Photos By Allan Benner, Tribune Staff / Ontario Health Coalition board member Doug Allan speaks at a meeting to discuss efforts to save Port Colborne hospital.

Jean-Claude Basque (NB Common Front for Social Justice), Johanne Perron (NB Coalition for Pay Equity), Pauline Richard (NB Common Front for Social Justice), Geoff Martin (Mount Alison University Faculty Association) and Patrick Colford (NB Federation of Labour) represented their organizations in the announcement of the formation of the coalition in Moncton on June 15, 2015. Photo by Daniel Legere

By Bob Peterson / Rethinking Schools

long history of being staff-dominated.

And it has. In New Orleans, following Katrina, unionized teachers were fired and the entire system charterized.

But it recognizes that our future depends on redefining unionism from a narrow trade union model, focused almost exclusively on protecting union members, to a broader vision that sees the future of unionized workers tied directly to the interests of the entire working class and the communities, particularly communities of color, in which we live and work.

It requires confronting racist attitudes and past practices that have marginalized people of color both inside and outside unions.

Having decimated labor law and defunded public education, Walker proceeded to expand statewide the private school voucher program that has wreaked havoc on Milwaukee, and enacted one of the nation’s most generous income tax deductions for private school tuition.

For nearly a decade we pushed for a full-time release president, a proposal resisted by most professional staff.

“Social Justice Unionism: A Working Draft”

Social justice unionism is an organizing model that calls for a radical boost in internal union democracy and increased member participation.

business model that is so dependent on staff providing services

building union power at the school level in alliance with parents, community groups, and other social movements.

The importance of parent/community alliances was downplayed

instead of helping members organize to solve their own problems.

Our challenge in Milwaukee was to transform a staff-dominated, business/service-style teachers’ union into something quite different.

only saw the union newsletter after the staff had sent it to the printer.

Key elements of our local’s “reimagine” campaign and our subsequent work include:

Building strong ties and coalitions with parent, community, and civic organizations,

broader issues

action.

earliest victories was securing an extra $5/hour (after the first hour) for educational assistants when they “cover” a teacher’s classroom.

lobby

enlist parents

we amended the constitution

consistently promoting culturally responsive, social justice teaching.

encourage members to lead our work.

release two teachers to be organizers

appear en masse at school board meetings

to shift certain powers from the staff to the elected leadership

new teacher orientation and mentoring are available and of high quality.

The strength of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) 2012 strike,

rested in large part on their members’ connections to parent and community groups

Karen Lewis

Portland, Oregon, and St. Paul, Minnesota

In Milwaukee, our main coalition work has been building Schools and Communities United,

We wanted to move past reacting, being on the defensive, and appearing to be only against things.

Key to the coalition’s renewal was the development of a 32-page booklet, Fulfill the Promise: The Schools and Communities Our Children Deserve.

concerns of the broader community beyond the schoolhouse door

English and Spanish

Currently the coalition’s three committees focus on fighting school privatization, promoting community schools, and supporting progressive legislation.

schools as hubs for social and health support,

This work reminds me of the words of activist/musician Bernice Johnson Reagon, of Sweet Honey in the Rock: “If you are in a coalition and you are comfortable, that coalition is not broad enough.”

Our new professional staff is committed to a broader vision of unionism with an emphasis on organizing.

We need to become the “go-to” organizations in our communities on issues ranging from teacher development to anti-racist education to quality assessments.

nonprofit organization, the Milwaukee Center for Teaching, Learning, and Public Education

We provide professional development and services to our members

reclaim our classrooms and our profession.

We partner with the MPS administration through labor/management committees

multiple committee meetings, inservice trainings, book circles (for college credit), and individual help sessions on professional development plans or licensure issues.

we offered workshops that drew 150 teachers at a time.

More teachers were convinced to join our union, too, because our teaching and learning services are only open to members.

mandate 45 minutes of uninterrupted play in 4- and 5-year-old kindergarten classes

We also won a staggered start

convincing the school board to systematically expand bilingual education programs throughout the district.

school-based canvassing around issues and pro-education candidates, and organizing to remove ineffective principals.

With the plethora of federal and state mandates and the datatization of our culture,

It’s clear to me that what is necessary is a national movement led by activists at the local, state, and national levels within the AFT and NEA—in alliance with parents, students, and community groups—to take back our classrooms and our profession.

social justice content in our curriculum

waiting to use any perceived or real weakness in public schools as an excuse to accelerate their school privatization schemes,

On the other hand, speaking out can play into the hands of the privatizers as they seek to expand privately run charters

including participation on labor/management committees, lobbying school board members, and balancing mass mobilizations with the threat of mass mobilizations.

In the end, we recognize a key element in fighting privatization is to improve our public schools.

In Los Angeles, an activist caucus, Union Power, won leadership of the United Teachers Los Angeles, the second largest teacher local in the country.

These services, which are delivered by private companies or non-profit organizations but funded primarily by government requisitions on a per client basis, have been targeted by pay equity programs over the past three years because wage rates are barely above minimum wage.

The coalition is made up of 650 individuals and 83 organizations that educates and advocates for the adoption and the implementation of adequate legislation in order to achieve pay equity - equal pay for work of equal value - for all workers in both the public and private sectors.

The coalition has been pushing for hospitalized elderly patients to be transferred to nursing homes, special-care homes and back to their own homes with more home care.

A representative with the Department of Social Development said last week that a review of the nursing home plan is complete and the information is being prepared for cabinet

Members of the P.E.I. Health Coalition Thursday gathered to urge the federal government to negotiate a new health accord with provincial and territorial governments.

Coalition chairwoman Mary Boyd was joined by fellow members Leo Broderick, vice-chair of the Council of Canadians, Lori MacKay, president of the P.E.I. division of CUPE, Carl Pursey, president of the P.E.I. Federation of Labour, and Mary MacNeil, regional representative of PSAC.

Perhaps the Central East Local Health Integration Network should also be questioned, Brady said. "That's their job. To make sure money is being spent properly." Part of the Canadian Health Coalition, the local health coalition aims to preserve Canada's medicare system and promote universal public health care.

Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister and Peterborough MPP Jeff Leal had just returned to the city late Wednesday afternoon when he learned of the news from the hospital. "It is a re-calibration of their financial statements involving a significant amount of money and the process will be ongoing," Leal said.