VON workers in Hamilton getting a lump of coal for holidays

'Decision won't stand without a challenge.' - OPSEU president Warren (Smokey) Thomas

Hamilton (13 Dec. 2007) - After 107 years of service to the community, the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) in Hamilton has been told that it has been disqualified from the tendering process that will decide home care nursing services in the Hamilton region.

The staff learned the news at a meeting Wednesday morning.

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/NUPGE), which represents the workers, says no reason was given.

About 100 VON nursing and administrative staff will be without a job next April, many after lengthy careers of delivering home care to patients in the Hamilton region. VON Hamilton recently was given the Hamilton Spectator's Gold Readers' Choice Award (in the home health care category).

VON is the second agency to find out its services were no longer wanted this week. On Monday St. Joseph's Home Care was told it was similarly disqualified. Together the two not-for-profit agencies provide about 80% of home nursing care in the region.

"Health minister George Smitherman has delivered a lump of coal into the stocking of almost every home care nurse and patient in the Hamilton area," says OPSEU president Warren (Smokey) Thomas.

Disruption likely

Hamilton home care patients will likely experience disruption to their care during the change. In Niagara, where the VON lost the home care contract in 2004, winning agencies struggled to hire enough staff, leaving many patients in a precarious position.

The agencies are among the first in the province to lose home care work following the lifting of a three-year moratorium on competitive bidding this fall.

The province declared a moratorium on competitive bidding in 2004 after several high-profile battles were waged across the province to save community-supported not-for-profit agencies. VON, Red Cross, and St. Elizabeth Nurses (SEN) had all been denied local contracts to continue home care services in regions throughout the province.

"George Smitherman may think he can slide this under the radar during the holiday season, but it won't go without a challenge," says Thomas. "OPSEU is committed to ending this destructive and costly method of delivering home care services." NUPGE