CUPE members are raising the alarms when it comes to the reorganization notice at Regina’s Pioneer Village.
On Monday the SHA handed out the notice to 500 unionized staff members saying there was too many staff for the declining number of people in the nursing home.
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CUPE’s Rebecca Reynard says the union has a few concerns about this, including the uncertainty on the reorganization. “We still at this time don’t know how many members are going to be affected and in what way. My second concern is the building itself. Members continue to work in that environment, residents are still being cared for in that environment and we know there is a large mold infestation that is effecting the health of our members.”
A release from CUPE states that the interim plan outlines the closure of infrastructure for the RPV Hostel, and units 2 East and 3 West, on a permanent basis. This will reduce the facility to, at most, 137 beds and will require some residents to move internally or transfer to another care home. The residents most affected are those who are most vulnerable, causing concern for how this reorganization will impact the well-being of the residents.
Reynard says the hope is this will be reversed, especially since the government has put out a request for proposal on a new building. “We don’t have any time-frame on that. It’s being said it could be two to three years for that building or buildings to be built, even once they get approval for it. We are hoping in the future, when this building comes around, that it will be our members working in it.”
Reynard adds that the responsibility of all of this ultimately belongs with the government. “They have been aware of the concern with this building for at least a decade, if not more. It feels to me that something more proactive could have been done in this case, in the case of Grenfell, where the community isn’t going to be affected by the crumbling infrastructure of our health region.”
