Bill MacKinnon of CUPE and Opposition Leader Olive Crane

CUPE says they have been locked out of reorganization for a year

CUPE President Bill McKinnon says the government has refused to allow the unions who represent PEI’s health care workers into meetings about the move to Health PEI.

Last week in the Legislature, Health Minister Doug Currie announced he would be tabling a report and legislation to move PEI’s health care delivery to a public corporation with a new CEO.

Currie said the move would facilitate economies and reorganization. New health agency will cut bureaucracy: Currie

On the surface it looked strange to us that another attempt would be made to take health services to a corporation, the third change in eight years. We said so: Health Minister changing deck chairs on Titanic

“Even with a new management team, re-organization requires the direct input of the health care and management professionals already working in the field – the doctors, nurses, administrators, etc. They know the system and what needs to be fixed.”

From McKinnon’s comments, it appears the idea is even worse than we expected. The union is being shut-out of talks.

Without direct involvement of the workers, the plan will fail to bring about any meaningful change.

“They’ll tell you well, there are CUPE members, but they were told to go on those committees. They aren’t necessarily union activists. They aren’t necessarily elected union representatives,” said McKinnon.

“They were hand-picked by management. That’s doesn’t make them good or bad people. It’s just they don’t necessarily have any understanding of the collective agreement. What we want is at least one person from each of the unions representing the unions. CBC “

Top down change management does not work

The government believes it can change the service delivery model in isolation.

“Glen Doyle, director of corporate services for the Department of Health, said executives for all four unions were getting regular updates through the labour relations advisory committee. Government thought that was the best way to move forward.

“For some of these committees, they’re not dealing with their specific union issue,” said Doyle.

“It’s about service delivery and care to patients and clients. It’s really not a forum for that labour discussion. That’s why we had the labour relations advisory committee.”CBC “

During the 1990′s, downsizing and reorganization was the big craze. Some corporations just rammed changes down from the top. Invariable those attempts failed.

The only successful model for managing change in organizations includes representatives from all affected groups. Labour are definitely part of the picture. Love them or hate them labour unions represent the workers.

We only need to look at successful countries like Germany where even private sector corporations involve the workers and their unions on all organizational change.

Cynicism prevails in health reform

Perhaps this is not an honest reorganization but merely a game of political cards. The Eastern Graphic dubs it Currie’s health care sleight of hand

“His initiative will neither save money nor trim the bureaucracy. The health bureaucracy today is as large, larger even, than it has ever been. It does not matter if health care falls under control of a department or a so-called arm’s length board. The end result will be the same.” writes Paul MacNeill in the Eastern Graphic.

No wonder the unions are complaining; however, we should be listening to them. They deliver a large portion of the services in health care. The wisdom and cooperation of CUPE members is vital to the success of this change.

Otherwise we are throwing more taxpayers dollars down the drain and delaying needed reforms.