To the Expositor:
As reported by Kelly Grant (health reporter for The Globe and mail) the words used by Health Minister Deb Mathews were “very smart investment” when announcing (on April 29, 2014) a Liberal “vow” to raise the minimum wage for PSWs in Ontario by $4/hr. This increase is to come in $1.50 increments with the first one kicking in on July 1, 2014 (retroactive to April 2014), then again in 2015 and 2016.
Now you have to ask yourself when hearing this: “has someone actually woke up and smelled the coffee finally” or is this simply election rhetoric. It is not a new thing for the provincial government to reneg on healthcare funding promises. The Progressive Conservatives have already jumped on the bandwagon after the announcement dismissing it as an “election ploy,” so we will have to wait and see if the Liberals will walk the walk now that they have talked the talk!
In the April 30 edition of The Expositor, a letter to the editor (in regard to PSW wages) was written by Margaret Schwartzentruber (‘Writer tackles PSW renumeration questions,’ page 4). Now I of all people have a great deal of respect for people who express their opinion in the public eye, but at times even I have to shake my head at some comments. I am not going to take a whole lot of times rebuking Ms. Schwartzentruber’s comments as, if my memory serves me right, this is the same lady who wrote in the paper that she was “in fear of being taken hostage by Natives” who were conducting an information protest on Hwy 6 awhile back. I truly feel that that kind of statement is very similar to her statements in her last letter. I certainly do not care if someone is openly “anti-something”—millions of people in the world are and it is my personal opinion that this lady is plain anti-union, which is her right, but she really needs to get her facts straight.
I will try and explain it using my career as a PSW as an example.
First, I consider myself to have been very fortunate to have been able to have spent my whole PSW career in a facility where I could make a modest wage, get a full benefit package and have a fairly decent pension plan, but why was I able to have that? Did my employer simply say, “here you go, PSWs, we are going to give you all these perks because we want you all to be happy campers?” Well to most reasonable people, no, that that is absolutely un-true. The fact is the only reason I had these provisions was simple—The Canadian Union Of Public Employees. No employer or government body is going to freely increase wages or improve benefits or pension plans unless it benefits them or they are ‘forced’ to as a result of an arbitrators ruling in the collective bargaining process. That is a fact and is just the way it is!
Thank God there are people out there who truly appreciate the hard work that PSWs do and are able to educate themselves to separate fact from fiction.
I hope the public who truly understand the need and importance of keeping Ontario PSWs on the job and continuing to serve the sick and elderly of this province take the time to contact the premier of this province and demand that she does ‘walk the walk’ on this issue.
As for Ms. Schwartzentruber, I truly hope that if she ever needs the services of a PSW that she appreciates them and she will probably find out that in the big scheme of things “a little piece of sticker on a chunk of apple” really is quite a miniscule thing.
Thank you,
Greg Young Wikwemikong
