CUPE workers 'scared' over health cuts

Unionized hospital workers are holding an emergency meeting in Fredericton on Thursday night as fears of job losses and health-care cuts continue to escalate.

Hundreds of workers are expected to attend.

"We're preparing them for the worst," said Ralph McBride, provincial co-ordinator of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 1252.

"Over the next three year period, between Horizon and Vitalité Health, they're talking 10 per cent of the overall staff. We have 10,000 members in CUPE. And that's not including the nurses’ union or the New Brunswick union, so we're just looking at our own numbers. If we took 10 per cent of our own numbers, well we're cutting a thousand jobs," he said.

McBride believes it will be front line workers, such as housekeeping, food services, laundry and the licensed practical nurses who will be taking the hit.

Mike Muise, the president of the CUPE Local 908, which represents about 1,400 members from Plaster Rock to Chipman, said they hope to have as many members as possible at the meeting so they can outline their fears.

"We hope to have as many members as possible to tell them what we think is coming in health care and our story is a little different from the provincial story," he said.

Lack of transparency

"I believe [Heath] Minister [Ted] Flemming and the CEOs [Rino] Volpé and [John] McGarry aren’t being transparent. I believe there’s lots more cuts coming and possibly even closures and we plan to tell our members that."

The union is meeting with Flemming next week, said Muise.

The Department of Health’s $2.58-billion budget was frozen in this year’s budget as the provincial government attempts to wrestle down its deficit.

Flemming is facing a revolt from the province’s doctors, who are opposed to the provincial government’s decision to cap the amount of money set aside for medicare billing.

The New Brunswick Medical Society has said it plans to take the provincial government to court over the decision.

'I would say a lot of the members, that are involved in the union, are scared.' — Mike Muise, CUPE

The Horizon Health Network and Vitalité Health Network have both announced a series of cuts and other measures to deal with a shrinking budget.

The Horizon Health Network announced in April it plans to cut 131 jobs to save about $7 million. But the health authority still has to find ways to cut another $14 million in 2013-14.

As well, Vitalité announced in February it is cutting its workforce by 400 jobs or six per cent over the next three years as a way to save $24 million a year.

CUPE’s Muise said the cuts are already having an impact on the morale and workload of others in the health system.

"I would say a lot of the members, that are involved in the union, are scared," he said.

"Then we have some newer members, I mean, they don’t realize what is going on. They think they have a job day to day, I think we have to enlighten them and tell them that you may not have a job tomorrow. If this keeps going the way we think it is going to, there may not be a whole lot left of us who have jobs tomorrow."

Horizon Health declined an interview on Thursday. Spokeswoman Lisa Caissie said the authority has nothing new to say.