Action “You turned your back on us” outside Québec’s National Assembly
Our “You turned your back on us” action outside Québec’s National Assembly on June 11th was a high point for the participants and generated a lot of excitement on our social media. I am sharing my statement during this action with you, with the intention of sharing the energy, mobilization and strength felt at the same time. We’re not giving up!
Nurses, licensed practical nurses, respiratory therapists, clinical perfusionists!
We were overloaded, exhausted! Our working conditions were abysmal, they are now intolerable!
Our priority is the health of our patients, to be able to care for them.
We want to give them humane, quality care.
We have denounced, we have demanded, we have proposed and we have fought for the health of our patients. Now, it’s time to insist.
We are here, together, outside the National Assembly, to remind Québec’s elected officials that the healthcare professionals can’t take anymore.
We delivered the message from the 76,000 healthcare professionals to Minister McCann, we told her that to continue, we need a break. We need respect.
We had to go and pitch our tents, be “Dying of fatigue” outside the institutions, to support our affiliated unions to get a little rest. And, it’s not over.
Because when we stand up and take action, put into motion what we believe, nothing stops Québec’s healthcare professionals.
Today, we are at a critical juncture. The crisis isn’t over, it weighs on us, and still worries us every day.
Healthcare professionals want to practice their profession and clinical judgment without it costing their lives, they want the government to attack the heart of the problems in the healthcare network, what is destroying our ability to care for patients in Québec.
Together, we have to end the inhumane.
The inhumane, we live it with our patients, to whom we cannot offer the quality of care we were trained to give and that they are entitled to expect.
The inhumane, we live it with a management which doesn’t care that we have a family, a personal life, that we are human beings ourselves!
Inhumane conditions, which is when we are not protected!
It is when they dangle premiums in front of us, and at the end of the day, they try to take them away by any means possible.
The inhumane, we live it with this government that makes compromises, even with democracy, and that imposes its power abusively!
The government turned its back on us in occupational health and safety , it turned its back on basic principles. It failed to protect its workers.
Where were the N95 masks when we needed them? In the institutions’ vaults instead of on the caregivers faces! Shame on you!
Where was the INSPQ when the contamination and spread was raging on? Busy changing its guidelines based on the stock!
Where was the CNESST? We had a relentless battle to remove pregnant women and immunocompromised workers…
5,000 health workers have been infected, where was this government? Busy saying there was no shortage of equipment!
Let’s end the inhumane.
If you had protected the healthcare personnel, we wouldn’t be in this position!
The government turned its back on us in occupational health and safety.
Today, it is our turn to turn our back on you!
The crisis set in, workers doubled their efforts, but the recognition didn’t follow.
We saw grocery stores and pharmacies give a premium for the inconveniences. They said it was essential to support their employees.
During that time, the healthcare network, the first exposed, on the front line… what happened?
We had to wait and wait some more. The first announcements: 4%, 8%… But for whom, where and when? Late, inequitable, inadequate premiums…
Beginning of May, the government decides to implement premiums seemingly more interesting, bur careful, getting them was a real obstacle course. If you miss a day of work, there goes the premium; not full time, no premium. And the list goes on.
They may well call us their guardian angels and tell us thank you.
Let’s end the inhumane.
Instead of telling us we will have a premium that would slip through our fingers, if the government had acknowledged the risk we were exposed to, we wouldn’t be in this position.
With these ridiculous premiums, the government turned its back on us.
Today, it is our turn to turn our back on this government!
From the beginning of the pandemic, the government has chosen to govern with ministerial orders. No consultation, no collaboration, no, ministerial orders!
The government gave all the power to the employers and we quickly saw how they abused it. They used it as a management tool, for problems completely unrelated to the crisis.
Work schedules, leaves, mobility were all disrupted. They were reassigned… While the people of Québec needed them, the FIQ and FIQP members continued to be mistreated.
There was absolutely NOTHING in several regions to justify using this power and abusing it. It made no sense!
We denounced the ministerial orders, we waged battles for vacations and many others are still ongoing.
Now, the lifting of the lockdown has begun! If everything gets back to normal, why do the healthcare professionals’ working conditions not return to normal too?
Stop the ministerial orders and give the Québec healthcare professionals back their rights!
Let’s end the inhumane.
If you hadn’t chosen to govern by ministerial orders and deprive us of our rights, we wouldn’t be in this position!
With these authoritarian orders, the government turned its back on us.
Now it’s our turn to turn our back on you!
As if it wasn’t enough, the government is adding insult to injury. It wants to make its public health emergency permanent, through Bill 61, which is being denounced from all sides. It’s unacceptable!
Where is the respect for democratic processes, the environment, and women?
Where is the investment in public services? During this crisis, we saw, everyone saw, how critical it is to invest in our public services!
By making the public health emergency permanent, you will be making our exhaustion, despair and anger permanent!
Let’s end the inhumane!
If you hadn’t chosen to table a bill which mocks the environment, science, democracy and women, we wouldn’t be in this position!
With Bill 61, which should simply be put in the shredder, the government turned its back on us.
Now, it’s our turn to turn our back on it!
Together, let’s end the inhumane!