Life without unions or rights has led to

decades of suffering for workers.

Is that about to end?

Harvestof pain

Pages 12-17

2015Edition No. 4

Challenger

Addictionscounsellors:

Actionneeded

NOW!Page 4

Trouble at work?

Help us to help you

Page 5

2 Challenger

CONTENTS/CONTACTS

• The President’s Message .................................. Page 3• Addictions Counsellors take note! ............... Page 4• Trouble at work? Call us NOW! ....................... Page 5• HSAA awareness campaign ............................ Page 6• By the Numbers ................................................... Page 7• Compassion fatigue ........................................... Page 8• Making work safer .............................................. Page 9• Local Unit Engagement ................................. Page 10• Meet HSAA’s new staff .................................... Page 10• Terry Fox scholarship ....................................... Page 11• No unions, no rights ........................................ Page 12• Injured worker’s painful story ...................... Page 16• Farm-safety failings ......................................... Page 17• Global Impact: Calling health pros ............ Page 18• Global Impact: Volunteer surgeries ........... Page 19• Labour history: Unions and medicare ...... Page 20• Public health inspectors ................................. Page 21• Kids camper says thanks ............................... Page 22• New HQ update ................................................ Page 23• Did You Know? .................................................. Page 23• Upcoming workshops ................................... Page 24

Do you have an opinion on our content or an idea for a story? Contact me, Terry Inigo-Jones, HSAA communications officer, at terryi@hsaa.ca.

Challenger is a quarterly HSAA publication. Please visit our website at www.hsaa.ca where online information is updated daily.

Send advertising inquiries to terryi@hsaa.ca.

Cover Photographs HARVEST OF PAIN: Main photo, injured worker Philippa Thomas was injured while working at an equestrian centre nine years ago. She’s been in pain ever since. Inset photo, farm-safety crusaders Darlene Dunlop and Eric Musekamp describe the conditions faced by Alberta farm workers, who don’t have the same rights as other workers in Canada.Photos by Terry Inigo-Jones, HSAA

HSAA Board Members

Executive Committee:

Elisabeth Ballermann, President - Elisabeth.Ballermann@hsaa.caMike Parker, Vice-President - Mike.Parker@hsaa.ca

Edmonton District: JR Bérubé - JR.Berube@hsaa.caDonna Farquharson - Donna.Farquharson@hsaa.caKristopher Moskal - Kris.Moskal@hsaa.caEvan Stratichuk - Evan.Stratichuk@hsaa.caYvonne Whiting - Yvonne.Whiting@hsaa.ca

Calgary District: Travis Asplund - Travis.Asplund@hsaa.caMariana Burstyn - Mariana.Burstyn@hsaa.caKathie Bzdel - Kathie.Bzdel@hsaa.caLaurel Jackson - Laurel.Jackson@hsaa.caFaika Satterthwaite - Faika.Satterthwaite@hsaa.ca

South District: Kelly Garland - Kelly.Garland@hsaa.caJason Soklofske - Jason.Soklofske@hsaa.ca

North District: Diane Lowe - Diane.Lowe@hsaa.caScott MacDougall - Scott.MacDougall@hsaa.ca

Central District: Christine Chambers - Christine.Chambers@hsaa.caTrudy Thomson - Trudy.Thomson@hsaa.ca

“Prime Minister Trudeau.” Having reached my adulthood with that phrase, it

doesn’t sound as strange as it feels the morning after the federal election.

Congratulations to our new prime minister and our new federal government. Whatever analysis one applies, it is as convincing a victory for Justin Trudeau as it was a defeat for the Harper Conservatives and the Mulcair New Democrats.

The Liberal platform platform, if implemented, will mesh with many of the priorities of working Canadians and the

positions that HSAA members have adopted over the years.

He promises to address income inequality, strengthen health care, improve access to medications, enhance retirement security, improve child care, restore door-to-door mail delivery, implement electoral reform, act on climate change and be more inclusive, among the many planks in the platform.

Trudeau promises to work to improve the relationship with our indigenous peoples and to immediately order an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.

He acknowledges that: “Labour unions play an important role in protecting the rights of workers and growing the middle class” and goes on to promise the repeal of “Bills C-377 and C-525, legislation that diminishes and weakens Canada’s labour movement.”

If you read through the whole 88-page platform – www.liberal.ca/realchange/ – you will see many of the issues that are of importance to HSAA members reflected in some way.

The platform stops short of our positions of truly keeping medicare public, of implementing universal child care or pharmacare and, while he does promise to collect more tax from the wealthiest individuals, a position we have long supported, he does not address any of the corporate tax cuts of the Harper government that have cut hundreds of billions of dollars from government revenues, driving budget deficits.

We will continue to push, through all the avenues and relationships that we have built over the years, towards those policy initiatives that are either short of our goals or completely missing from the Liberal platform, and to hold the government’s feet to the fire to deliver on its promises. Nevertheless, as we have always done, we will work with the governments that the people have chosen.

With a prime minister who has categorically committed to

ElisabethBallermannHSAA PresidentIn Solidarity

THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Challenger 3

We will push the new government to deliver on its promisesMany Liberal and HSAA positions mesh

working with the premiers and who respects Albertans’ choice of their NDP government, I am cautiously optimistic that we will see some progress toward our positions, and towards HSAA’s mission “to enhance the quality of life of our members and society.”

To the end of working with government, I was honoured to be appointed by Premier Rachel Notley to the Premier’s Advisory Committee on the Economy. The three-year appointment will provide me the opportunity to represent the views of HSAA and, more broadly, the interests of working Albertans as fundamental elements and contributors to our economy.

The next four years will be interesting times, indeed.

QUOTABLE

”

“ We will restore fair and balanced labour laws that acknowledge the important role of unions in Canada.

Labour unions play an important role in protecting the rights of workers and growing the middle class.

Under Stephen Harper, many of the fundamental labour rights that unions have worked so hard to secure have been rolled back, making it more difficult for workers to organize freely, bargain collectively in good faith, and work in safe environments.

We will restore fair and balanced labour laws that acknowledge the important role of unions in Canada, and respect their importance in helping the middle class grow and prosper. This begins with repealing Bills C-377 and C-525, legislation that diminishes and weakens Canada’s labour movement.

Liberal Party election pledge

4 Challenger

LABOUR RELATIONS

By Laura Hahn,Addictions Counsellor

This is an important message to addictions counsellors: We need you to become a member of one of the

associations now in preliminary discussions with the Alberta government.

Addictions counsellors need authorization to perform the restricted activity of psychosocial intervention, as per the Health Professions Act, but there is no regulatory body in Alberta that regulates and provides authorization for this profession.

We have been able to continue to operate under a temporary authorization from the Minister of Health while HSAA, the Alberta government and others have been working toward a permanent solution.

The government, through its Alberta Health: Legislation & Regulation, Workforce Strategy Division, is now in preliminary discussions regarding professional self-regulation of counsellors with three professional groups:

• Addictions Professionals Association of Alberta (APAA) www.apaa-member.com

• Canadian Counselling Psychotherapy Association (CCPA) www.ccpa-accp.ca

• Canadian Professional Counsellors Association (CPCA) www.cpca-rpc.ca

At this stage it is important for each of you to get involved with an association that can speak on your behalf in these discussions with the government.

While HSAA continues to work on your behalf, the

rules concerning self-regulation mean that it has no role in these discussions. It is therefore important that you register with one of these groups so your voices are heard. These associations need your membership to authorize them to speak on your behalf. Check out their websites for details.

The plan is to determine the core components and functions of the counselling profession in Alberta, whether or not it is within the best interest of the public to have the counselling profession regulated and whether or not the profession is in favour of self-regulation.

The investigative stage involves the exploration of the counselling profession in Alberta as a whole, inclusive of the various specializations such as addictions counselling, psychotherapy, family and marriage counselling.

The associations will identify the pros and cons of professional regulation and the substantial responsibilities that come with self-regulating a profession within Alberta.

This is a lengthy process with no required time lines, as it is essential that each step be taken with careful consideration as outlined in the Alberta Health Professions Act.

Associations will need to verify whether or not their membership is in support of self-regulation. If the total number of members within the associations does not adequately reflect the majority of professional counsellors working within Alberta, this process will become stagnant because there will be insufficient evidence that the profession is in favour, or not, of self-regulation.

Important message for addictions counsellors!Sign up, sign up, sign up!

See COUNSELLORS on Page 7

By Sylvie Gill,Director of Labour Relations (South)

HSAA’s growing size (we now represent almost 24,000 health-care professionals) means we have been

undergoing a lot of changes, but one thing has remained the same: Our commitment to the consistent delivery of high-quality services to members.

Whether your questions or issues are related to collective agreement interpretation, workplace complications, benefits (LTD/WCB) difficulties or health, safety and wellness problems, we can help you. We have a variety of highly trained staff who can help you navigate through these difficult issues and advocate on your behalf. We have always prided ourselves on the level of service provided to our members through the staff. And now we can add to that service our HSAA stewards as well!

In order for us to provide the best support to you during a difficult time, help us to help you by remembering the following:

• Call your labour relations officer (LRO): All LROs have specific sites to which they are assigned. When you log on to the HSAA website (www.hsaa.ca), your LRO’s name will appear. To ensure that you have representation during a meeting with the employer, call your LRO as early as possible so he or she can arrange to attend the meeting with you. Early notification will allow for the arrangement of another LRO to assist you if your LRO is unable to attend. This is of critical importance. If your employer is advising you may have union representation, please take that seriously and contact your LRO as soon as possible. Timely contact with your LRO can make a difference in the outcome of the meetings with your employer/manager.

• Call the MRC: HSAA’s new Members’ Resource Centre (MRC) is a growing department within your union. The MRC assistants are able to provide you with information on union activities, update your personal data on the HSAA database and, most importantly, answer basic questions related to the collective agreement thereby saving you valuable time. Some of the questions that the MRC assistants handle are:

- How much vacation time am I entitled to earn?- What is the rate of pay for my classification?- How does named holiday pay work?Don’t hesitate to contact these helpful staff members

with your questions. If the question you are asking is Challenger 5

LABOUR RELATIONS

Don’t wait until last minute – call ASAP and help us to help youTrouble with your employer? Call us NOW!

THIS IS OF CRITICAL IMPORTANCE

If your employer is advising you may have

union representation, please take that

seriously and contact your LRO as soon

as possible. Timely contact with your LRO can make a difference in the outcome of the

meetings with your employer/manager.

beyond the scope of their position, they will forward your call to the LRO assigned to you or to the LRO on coverage. Once we have moved into our new building in Edmonton, our MRC assistants will be the first people you talk to when you call the office.

• Call your HSAA steward: HSAA is proud to advise that we have trained two groups of HSAA stewards at Level I of our Steward Training Program. Most of these stewards have also either attended HSAA Steward Training Level II in September or are scheduled to do so in November. While not all work sites have trained stewards yet, we are working on expanding the program.

See STEWARD on Page 7

6 Challenger

AWARENESS CAMPAIGN

By Elisabeth Ballermann,HSAA President

There is nothing more symbolic of human care than our hands. It is the human touch that evokes so much of what health-care

professionals do, through skilled hands, caring hands, healing hands, compassionate hands and trained hands.

That is why HSAA’s new awareness campaign focuses on hands – your expert hands.

We are proud to present the Caring Hands campaign, which will not only enhance the public’s knowledge about the breadth of expertise of HSAA members, but also show you the faces of those people who do the hard work.

The new communications initiative builds on the foundation of last year’s campaign, which included the line: “You wouldn’t allow just anyone to have your life in their hands.” That approach makes a wonderful jump-off point to highlight the qualities that HSAA members use at work every day, whether they are front-line members such as occupational therapists and pharmacy technicians or behind the scenes such as support personnel.

We now take that approach a step further by shining a spotlight on individual members and having them tell their own stories. The campaign accurately depicts HSAA members as professionals who not only have skill and training, but also compassion, humanity, kindness and a dignified strength.

There are so many HSAA health-sciences experts in countless locations province wide and it is a daunting task, albeit an important one, to let both members and the public at large understand how vital and pervasive the impact of our members’ expertise really is.

That is why this powerful message is being delivered to all corners of the province and beyond, through broadcast television commercials, internet commercials delivered through YouTube, as well as on our Facebook page and website. We are also reinforcing this message by interacting with you through Twitter and our new Instagram page.

As well as the broadcast ads, we are proud to be providing a snapshot into the professional lives of a few of our members through longer, documentary-style videos available on our Facebook page and YouTube channel.

We are also excited to bring you such an important message and wish to assure you that our commitment to communicating with both our members and the public is an ongoing endeavor. We look forward to your comments and feedback, either through the comment sections of our social-media channels, or by email to communications@hsaa.ca.

Twitter: @HSAAlbertaFacebook: HSAA - Health Sciences Association of AlbertaInstagram: HSAAlbertaYoutube: Health Sciences Association of Alberta

Albertans see your Caring Hands at work

Challenger 7

BY THE NUMBERS/LABOUR RELATIONS

The counselling associations currently meeting with Alberta Health have differing membership criteria, mission statements, values, perspectives and practices.

The important factor is that you become a member of an association that you feel best represents you and your profession.

Since this process is in its early stages and this is a new profession being considered, it is likely that the current associations will be changing and adapting as they work with Alberta Health and each other, possibly even merging and/or creating something completely new.

Adequate membership in the associations will move this process forward as it will prove they have the authority to speak on behalf of the profession and indicates the ability to sustain the financial resources required to support the fiscal weight of self-regulation in Alberta.

HSAA will continue to advocate with Health Minister Sarah Hoffman for continuation of the temporary authorization beyond November 2016 until there is a permanent solution.

If there is a steward at your site, his or her name and contact information will be on the website when you log in. Your steward works closely with your LRO and can answer questions and provide some advice and direction. Most importantly, the steward is able to assist you with some issues and the type of issues will be enhanced as training continues. The stewards are available at your work site and can provide you with support when you need it. You still have the ability to access your LRO if that is your preference, but this is another resource available to you. If the issue you are bringing to the HSAA steward is beyond his or her training, they will ask you to contact your LRO.

So, please remember these valuable resources that are available to you and make sure you call someone as soon as possible if you are experiencing a problem at work or have been called into a meeting with your employer, especially when you have been advised that you may choose to have union representation. Help us to help you!

By Gaetan Drapeau,HSAA Researcher

AHS records surplusAlberta Health Services (AHS) accumulated surplus for the year ended March 31, 2015, is $1.231 billion.

(Alberta Health Services)

Workers’ health conditions have an impactAccording to a recent report by the Institute for Research on Public Policy, “each year, about six percent of the Canadian workforce adjust their work status for some length of time in order to deal with a health condition. This can include either formally leaving a job, being absent from work for an extended period of time or taking part-time work in order to accommodate a reduced work schedule.”

(Institute for Research on Public Policy)

Influenza immunization rates upEach year since 2010/11 more Albertans have gotten immunized against influenza: 2010/11 – 22 per cent; 2011/12 – 22.5 per cent; 2012/13 – 23.0 per cent; 2013/14 – 27.6 per cent; 2014/15 – 30 per cent. Based on previous years’ results, Alberta Health has purchased enough vaccine to cover 40 per cent of the population this season.

(Alberta Health Services)

By the Numbers

{COUNSELLORS from Page 4

Process still in its early stages

STEWARD from Page 5

Valuable resources available

8 Challenger

WORKPLACE HEALTH, SAFETY & WELLNESS

By Val Hadwen,Medical Library Technician, Medicine Hat Regional HospitalMember of HSAA’s Workplace Health, Safety & Wellness Committee

“The expectation that we can be immersed in suffering and loss daily and not be touched by it is as unrealistic as expecting to be able to walk though water without getting wet. We burn out not because we don’t care, but because we don’t grieve. We burn out because we’ve allowed our hearts to become so filled with loss that we have no room left to care.”

(Naomi Rachel Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom, p. 52)

All the stories, all the scenes, all the trauma that health-care workers see and deal with on a daily basis – where

do those images go at the end of the day?Being subjected to suffering and distress repeatedly can

result in compassion fatigue, which can have detrimental effects on the health of health-care workers and the organizations that employ them. Compassion fatigue is a progressive occupational hazard that can affect even the most dedicated health-care worker. It is not a character flaw, but the cost of caring we face as health-care professionals.

Workplace toxicity is born through prolonged negativity producing bitterness, anger, feelings of injustice, depression, anxiety, feelings of isolation, apathy and distress, to name only a few. Although our physical surroundings may be a major influence, our personal internal state is still what determines if we succumb to compassion fatigue.

It is imperative to maintain balance by staying connected to those relationships in our lives that help to keep us grounded and provide meaning and purpose to our lives – the relationships we have through family, work, community, social activities, friends and religious faith.

Last, but not least, we need to take care of ourselves. “Promoting self-compassion in health-care workers has

shown to increase their delivery of compassion care as it enhances their resilience and activates care which is driven by emotion, rather than care which is driven by a need to meet organizational demands,” says a research article titled The Role of Mindfulness and Loving-Kindness Meditation in Cultivating Self-Compassion and Other-Focused Concern in Health Care Professionals, published in 2014 by I. Boellinghaus, F.W. Jones and J. Hitton.

As health-care workers who daily provide individualized

patient care, we need to remember to extend daily care to ourselves as well. Resources can be found to help.

Elizabeth Mcconnell, a cognitive behaviour therapist and lecturer at the University of East Anglia in the U.K., created the STOOP technique created to develop self-awareness:

S = STOPT = TAKE A BREATHO = OBSERVE (what are you thinking, feeling, doing)O = OPTIONS (what would be a kinder or

compassionate thing to do for yourself right now)P = PROCEED (make the conscious choice to

implement the more compassionate action you selected previously)

Dr. Beth Hudnall Stamm, a retired professor and researcher in the field of traumatic stress, has developed a self-test called Professional Quality of Life that can be downloaded free of charge to assess levels of trauma, burnout and compassion satisfaction. For more information, visit http://www.proqol.org.

Social Workers: Advocating for Albertans Across Alberta, Registered Social Workers can be found helping others. Often, you will find us advocating for those who are not able to speak for themselves.

Alberta’s income disparity gap is a good example. A growing gap between the haves and have nots has resulted in more homelessness, more working poor, an affordable housing crisis and many other social problems.

As social workers, we are on the front lines, urging government to repair major cracks in our social infrastructure and to adopt social polices that look after the needs of vulnerable Albertans.

Access to resources to meet basic human needs is every person’s right. Alberta’s 7000 Registered Social Workers are advocates for fairness and social justice. Advocacy is a fundamental aspect of our professional ethics and at the heart of what we do.

The Alberta college of Social Workers regulates social work practice in Alberta. Its primary focus is to serve and protect the public interest by promoting skilled and ethical social work. www.acsw.ab.ca

Registered Social Workers (RSW):The professional standard in social work

Is compassion fatigue affecting you?

WORKPLACE HEALTH, SAFETY & WELLNESS

Challenger 9

By Terry Inigo-Jones,HSAA Communications

Working in health care should not be a threat to your health, but

statistics shows that health care is one of the most dangerous industries in Alberta.

“Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) data shows that health care has a higher rate of disabling injuries than many other occupations, including construction, farming and oil-and-gas operations,” says Ray Geldreich, health and safety advisor for HSAA.

The disabling injury rate (DIR) for Alberta Health Services (AHS) in 2014 was 2.75 per 100 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees. For Covenant Health, that figure rises to 4.14. Meanwhile, in the construction–industrial category, the rate was 0.54, farming operations came in at 1.78 and oil and gas–upstream at 0.13. For roofing, often seen as a dangerous occupation, the injury rate was 3.17.

“It shouldn’t be this way – and it doesn’t have to be this way,” says Geldreich. “As your union, we’re working to ensure that your workplaces are made safer, not only from physical injuries, but also from mental-health injuries.”

HSAA’s board of directors has adopted a policy statement on workplace health, safety and wellness that lays out the right of workers to “leave work free from injury or disease, either mental or physical, caused by their job or their workplace.”

The objective of the policy says: “HSAA will seek to reduce the level of injury and occupational disease amongst our membership by working to hold employers accountable for the high rates of injury and occupational illness in the health-care industry.

HSAA working to make your work safer

Is Health Care a Safe Place to Work?2014 Disabling Injury Rate (DIR)

Construction - Industrial

0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.52.5

Oil & Gas - Upstream

Farming Operations

Health Care Services - AHS

Health Care Services - Covenant

Disabling Injuries per 100 FTESource: Workers’ Compensation Board (Alberta)

HSAA will work with government, labour organizations and other safety advocates to improve health and safety legislation and standards in the health-care industry.”

For more details on the policy statement, please see the policies page at our website at www.hsaa.ca/ about-hsaa/position-policies. The statement on workplace health, safety and wellness is No. 5.8, under Ops 5 Members (Mar 2015).

HSAA has also launched a mental-health awareness campaign.

“All of our labour relations officers (LROs) are taking a mental-health first-aid training course that covers the essentials of recognizing and assisting a person experiencing a mental-health crisis,” says Geldreich. “Our LROs indicated that they encounter members experiencing a mental-health crisis on a frequent basis and wanted to be better able to help them. The training does not replace professional mental-

health assistance, but helps the LROs recognize what is happening and link them to the appropriate resources.”

In addition, Geldreich and two LROs (Shannon McLeod in Calgary and Judy Mayer in Edmonton) will be trained through the Mental Health Association of Canada to become certified mental-health and safety advisors. “This training will ensure we are familiar with appropriate steps employers should be taking as per the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Z1003 standard on psychological safety in the workplace. Several employers, including Alberta Health Services (AHS), have committed to implementing this standard.

“We will be trained to work with employers to implement and improve systems to protect mental health in the workplace,” says Geldreich.

See SAFETY on Page 10

10 Challenger

LOCAL UNIT NEWS/HSAA STAFF

By Kim Adonyi,HSAA Communications

C’mon and join the fun!While many of our Local

Units have active, functioning Local Unit Executives, we still have a number of work sites where none exist. We are encouraging these sites to develop these.

These benefits include:• Local unit funding for

celebrations, events, awards, lunch ’n’ learns, recognitions and more;

• Early registration opportunities for some HSAA events;

• Training and education tools for members of the Local Unit Executive;

• Leadership opportunities; and• Opportunities to create closer

ties with your work colleagues.What is the primary goal of an

HSAA Local Unit Executive? To facilitate communications with other members at your work site and the union as a whole.

If you are interested in learning more about this opportunity, contact your Labour Relations Officer (LRO) or one of your District Board Members for information.

Earl Victor,Member Resource Centre (MRC) Assistant, Edmonton (Temporary)

A native of Dominica, a small English-speaking Caribbean island not to be confused with Dominican Republic, Earl joined HSAA after more than a decade working in education at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels in the Caribbean, North America and Europe. In addition to being an educator, he has four years of experience with a call centre based in the U.S. in the areas of customer service, sales, training and quality control. He holds a diploma and Master’s degree in French and a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Education. He says he is excited to be working at HSAA and more so in the MRC, as he believes the role of MRC assistants is fundamental in ensuring that members’ inquiries are dealt with professionally, expediently and proficiently.

Sydney Thomson, Administrative Assistant, Disability, Edmonton (Temporary)

Sydney will be working as an Administrative Assistant in the disability department of Edmonton’s HSAA office until the end of May this year. Sydney studies at MacEwan University and after graduation in 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, she has spent the last year working in the non-profit sector before coming to HSAA. She is looking forward to learning more about the union as well as its members and the large variety of professions that fall under HSAA. As the daughter of a passionate HSAA member she has grown up learning about the union and is excited to be a part of the team.

Welcomeaboard!HSAA is pleased to welcome two new members of staff, who have joined us to better serve you, our members.

Get involved and have fun!

FEELING APPRECIATED: HSAA members at Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital attend a member-appreciation tea earlier this year.

Kim Adonyi, HSAA

“We have also developed some print resources to help members recognize the signs of mental-health stress and how to manage stress and created green-ribbon mental-health pins to raise awareness of the issue.”

There will also be presentations on mental health and the workplace at many local unit meetings and at district meetings this fall. To find out more about the meetings or to get print resources or pins, please

contact your LRO. You can also visit the HSAA website at www.hsaa.ca/workplace-health-safety/workplace-mental-health.

“As our policy statement says, patient safety and patient outcomes are closely linked to worker safety. HSAA is committed to working toward making all your workplaces safer, so you can continue to focus on doing what you do best – caring for patients,” says Geldreich.

SAFETY from Page 9

Resources have been developed to help

Challenger 11

NUPGE/HSAA AWARDS

By Terry Inigo-Jones,HSAA Communications

The son of an HSAA member from Calgary has won a $1,500 scholarship for university studies from our

national affiliate, the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE).

Gavin Jaeger-Freeborn won the Terry Fox Memorial Scholarship after writing an essay on the importance of quality public services in enhancing the quality of life of people with disabilities.

In his essay, Gavin wrote: “Disabled youth 10 to 24 years of age are nearly twice as likely as their non-disabled counterparts to have dropped out of high school. They are also more likely to have stopped their formal education at that point (22.5 per cent vs. 12.5 per cent). Within four months of graduating high school, they are less than half as likely as their non-disabled counterparts to move directly into college (5.1 per cent vs. 13.4 per cent).

“While there are policies and research to support equal education, it is the public-service employees who put these policies into action. They ensure that education is free, that quality teachers are trained and supported with extra counselling or other accommodations as part of public services for people with disabilities.”

He adds: “If these services were privatized, there would be a risk of reduction of services due to the profit motive. There could also be reduction in employee training and fair treatment of the employees which could also impact the treatment of clients.”

Gavin, who has a learning disability in reading and math, is in his first year studying engineering at the University of Victoria. “We are all very excited about Gavin receiving this scholarship,” says his mother Diane Jaeger, a health promotion facilitator at the Alberta Health Services (AHS) Southport Complex in Calgary.

“As everyone knows, university is expensive and getting a quality education can open doors. I think that Gavin has worked really hard to get where he is and receiving the Terry Fox scholarship is such a privilege. Terry Fox has been such an inspiration to so many people.”

Gavin also received the $800 George C. Hall bursary from HSAA, open to members or their spouses or dependents pursuing full time post-secondary studies.

To find out more about scholarships and bursaries available to members of HSAA and NUPGE, please visit hsaa.ca (look under Member Benefits) and nupge.ca (look under Scholarships).

Member’s son wins Terry Fox scholarship

The HSAA Advantage

includes HSAA Bursaries!HSAA has bursaries available to all members or their spouses/

dependants to encourage and support their educational goals and they include:

1. Part-time Bursary ($500.00)2. Dell Taylor Memorial Education Fund ($200.00)3. George C. Hall Bursary ($800)4. Labour Relations Fund ($300)

For more details and the bursary applications, go to http://www.hsaa.ca/member-resources/hsaa-forms.

In addition to the bursaries, there is a Members’ Assistance Fund that can be accessed by members with emergent financial needs. Please call our office at 1-800-252-7904 for more information.

PROUD PARENT: HSAA member Diane Jaeger with son Gavin.Photo courtesy of Diane Jaeger

12 Challenger

WORKERS’ RIGHTS

Alberta’s new NDP government has indicated it will soon lift the exemption of farms and ranches from occupational health and safety (OHS) laws, but has not revealed what other legislative changes may be coming to improve farm safety or whether it will also include giving farm workers the right to join unions.

By Terry Inigo-Jones,HSAA Communications

If you’ve ever wondered what life would be like without unions, look no further than Alberta’s farms.

There lies one last remaining outpost, one frightening reminder of what work was like in the 19th century – for Alberta is the only province in Canada that denies workers

NO UNIONS,NO RIGHTS

Alberta farm workers reap a harvest of pain and death, thanks to being excluded from the same protections other workers enjoy. But that injustice might be about to end.

the right to join unions, as well as excluding them from employment standards, health and safety legislation and mandatory coverage from the Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB).

What does this mean for those who earn their living on our farms and ranches?

It means workers being killed because they don’t have the right to refuse unsafe work. It means children working in frightening conditions. It means some employers taking EI, CPP and income taxes from your pay, but failing to pass it along to the government. It means working long hours for a fraction of minimum wage. It means losing your job and your home if you fight for your rights.

“It’s a real taste of the wild West,” says Eric Musekamp, president of the Alberta Farmworkers’ Union of Alberta (FUA) – a union that, thanks to Alberta’s archaic laws, has zero members.

Ask him and wife Darlene Dunlop what they have seen in their decades of working on all kinds of farms of all kinds of sizes in Alberta and the answers leave you reeling.

How about the owner of a large hay farm who kept pushing the driver of a payloader to go faster even though it wasn’t safe?

“One of the payloaders had something wrong with

Challenger 13

WORKERS’ RIGHTS

SAFETY CRUSADERS: Darlene Dunlop and Eric Musekamp, president of the Farmworkers’ Union of Alberta, have spent years campaigning for the rights of employees.

Photos by Terry Inigo-Jones, HSAA

the steering and if you went too fast, it would just start thrashing” and the driver would lose control, says Musekamp in an interview in his home in Winnifred, just outside of Bow Island in southern Alberta.

“The boss, if he saw you going slow, he’d be behind you, he’d be honking, he’d be blabbing, so there was lots of pressure to go fast.”

Dunlop refused to push the payloader beyond its limits, but a co-worker succumbed to the pressure. He was killed when the payloader flipped and crushed him.

The boss’s reaction? “He said: ‘The dumb son of a ----- shouldn’t have crashed it and God ---- wrecked my loader. Jesus, I’ve got to hire a new guy.’ ”

Musekamp and Dunlop stresses the owner wasn’t malicious. Indeed, they praise him for his work ethic, his drive and entrepreneurial passion that helped him build an empire.

“He’s just a product of the conditions of the wild West, the lawless frontier that this is,” says Musekamp. “His favourite saying was: ‘Rules are for fools. I can do whatever the ---- I want.”

Quite simply, the rules that govern how businesses operate everywhere else in Canada don’t apply to farm and ranch operations in Alberta.

So, an untrained 15-year-old can be doing the work of an electrician in a dark and wet root cellar. Picture live wires hanging loose over a wet, concrete floor and a pregnant woman tripping over it and sending sparks flying.

That was one of many incidents the couple has witnessed first hand.

“The conditions were just mind-boggling. It was horrible, the noise, the dust, electric cables everywhere, unguarded chains, “ says Musekamp about a potato-harvesting barn.

Dunlop adds: “You have big men with tattoos (seeing these conditions) saying: ‘Please God let me get out of here alive.’ ”

“The fact of the matter is that right now, there are children working in unsafe, unhealthy, unsupervised work sites … you’ll see children in creepy, scary conditions that scared me – and I’m an old guy and I knew what was going on,” says Musekamp.

The lack of rules also means that Department of Transport (DoT) staff who can impose safety standards on truckers from other industries are powerless when it comes to farm operations.

Picture three trailers being hauled by one vehicle, with the loads being too wide, too high, not tied down properly and with no warning flags when Musekamp is pulled over by someone from the DoT.

“I literally grabbed the DoT guy by the shoulder and took him to the front of my truck and said: ‘See that? It’s a farm plate.’ And he can’t touch me.”

See FARMS on Page 14

14 Challenger

WORKERS’ RIGHTS

• 60,000: Number of workers on Alberta farms and ranchers.• 25: Number killed on Alberta farms last year.• 97: Percentage of Alberta farm workers who do not have WCB coverage.• 0: Number of farm deaths investigated by Occupational Health and Safety.• 67: Percentage reduction in farm deaths in B.C. after new rules introduced in 1993.• 53: Percentage reduction in injury rate on B.C. farms since 1993.• 41: Percentage reduction in serious injury rate on B.C. farms since 1993.

FARM FACTS

In Alberta, you can even carry farm workers, including children, in the back of an open pickup truck on the QE2 Highway, say the couple.

Employment as dangerous and as hard as agricultural work must be well paid, though, right?

Afraid not.Dunlop tells the story of a worker from Mexico who was

crying on her shoulder in despair. He was employed by the month, English was a second language and he had three children to support, so he was vulnerable.

“In the winter when he was tending cattle, it was eight or 10 hours a day, so it wasn’t bad, but in the summer, I worked 18 hours a day and he was there longer than me,” she says. His pay worked out at $3 per hour, while Dunlop was paid $12.

“He said: ‘How am I going to feed my family on $3 an hour?’ ”

Musekamp says the man was a remarkable person, had a talent for mechanics and a work ethic “like you wouldn’t believe.”

However, like most farm workers in Alberta, he had little choice but to accept the low pay and the exploitation.

Without rules and regulations, without standards and without a union to stand up for them, workers have few options to fight back against abusive employers.

“It just so happens that all the (stuff ) that people have that they take for granted comes from unions over time,” says Musekamp.

FARMS from Page 13

‘How am I going to feed my family on $3 an hour?’

Photos by Terry Inigo-Jones, HSAA

See UNIONS on Page 15

“ It just so happens that all the (stuff) that people have that they take for granted comes from unions over time. You name it, this is all the stuff that farm workers don’t have, plus they can’t have a union. Think there’s a connection, boys and girls?

Eric Musekamp, president of the Farmworkers’ Union of Alberta”

Challenger 15

WORKERS’ RIGHTS

“You name it, this is all the stuff that farm workers don’t have, plus they can’t have a union. Think there’s a connection, boys and girls?

“You are as vulnerable as hell,” he says. If you live in a home owned by your employer, you’re vulnerable. If you don’t speak English fluently, or if you’re a Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW), you’re at the mercy of your employer. Create a fuss and you can lose your job and your home.

Musekamp and Dunlop have been publicly campaigning for farm workers for 11 years and have paid a heavy price. They were blackballed by some employers after going public with concerns. They have spent $150,000 out of their own pockets for their campaign, while raising only $7,000 in donations. They even sold their home to raise funds.

What are they hoping to see from the new NDP government this fall?

They want an immediate change to get workers covered by WCB, occupational health and safety regulations and child-labour regulations. Of course, they also want the right to unionize recognized.

What will become of the FUA if that happens? “Well, our hope is that we can fold up our tent,” says

Musekamp. If there’s to be any organizing by a union, it will by done by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Canada, he says.

When changes come, employers have nothing to fear, he says. If Alberta follows the model adopted in B.C. in 1993, large multinational corporations and smaller family farms will see lives saved and a reduction in injuries. Family members working on farms lose limbs and lives now and they’ll benefit from safer workplaces just as much as other farm workers.

Farming operators may even discover some efficiencies and new methods that improve profits, he says.

WCB coverage will also protect employers from being sued by injured farm workers or the families of those killed at work.

B.C.’s Farm and Ranch Safety and Health Association (FARSHA) oversees the implementation of health and safety programs. Since the rules changed in B.C. in 1993, that province has seen a decrease of 67 per cent in farm fatalities, a reduction of 53 per cent in the injury and a 41-per-cent reduction in the serious injury rate. This was achieved while the number of agricultural workers doubled.

“There’s no reason not to expect the same kind of results that British Columbia has achieved if we more or less follow their path. We should actually be able to do even better because we can learn from their experience,” says Musekamp.

“Our Alberta farmers are actually pretty clever and hard working. They can definitely do it.”

UNIONS from Page 14

Alberta farm workers ‘are as vulnerable as hell’

FARM HISTORY: Working and safety conditions affecting Alberta farm workers are out of date, just like this rusting tractor.Photo by Terry Inigo-Jones, HSAA

16 Challenger

WORKERS’ RIGHTS

ADDINGINSULT TO INJURYBy Terry Inigo-Jones,HSAA Communications

Accidents happen. They’re a fact of life. No matter how hard we try to avoid them,

people get hurt.However, when you’re injured at work, it’s

adding insult to injury (in the most literal sense) if you’re left to deal with the pain, the loss of income, the loss of job and all the other side-effects without any help.

That’s what happens to most farm workers who get hurt, thanks to the province’s archaic labour and occupational health and safety (OHS) regime that excludes them from the same protection that all other workers have and from mandatory coverage by the Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB).

Philippa Thomas of Cochrane knows just how painful that can be. Nine years ago when she was working at an equestrian centre, she cut her thumb while opening a vial of vaccine for a horse. The wound became infected and it led to a rare and debilitating disease that affects her nerves and causes constant pain.

“This is forever and it spreads,” she says, pointing to the pain’s progress from her injured hand, up one arm and down the other. She says she has pain 24/7, with intermittent flare-ups when it gets worse.

“For me, when it flares, everyone better be out of the house. Severe vomiting, headaches, the whole gamut. It has become my life now.”

See PAIN on Page 17

Terry Inigo-Jones, HSAA

Challenger 17

WORKERS’ RIGHTS

The disease is known as the “suicide disease” because sufferers can find the pain unbearable and because it’s a lifelong condition. “I will spend the rest of my life with this and … with this pain, I could one day off myself,” she says.

She has had seven surgeries, a spinal chord stimulator has been implanted on her spine, she takes a basket full of medications to deal with the pain and has to wear a cast on her arm. “I died on the operating table a few times,” she says. In total, she faces costs of about $3,000 a month for medications, maintenance of the stimulator and other related health issues.

She’s unable to work because of her condition. Because she was not covered by WCB, there was no replacement of lost wages. She didn’t receive Employment Insurance. Without WCB, there was no access to compensation to which other non-farm workers can apply. She spent $27,000 trying to sue her employer, only to be told that

legislation excluding farm workers prevented that lawsuit from proceeding. Despite the pain and the setbacks, Thomas has been waging a campaign to ensure no one else has to suffer the way she has because Alberta’s labour and OHS laws discriminate against farm, ranch and agricultural workers. She was recently presented with a social-justice award by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Canada and the Agricultural Workers Alliance.

“I need to see that other people who decide to go into this agriculture industry in this province are take care of. It’s maddening. It’s absolutely maddening. How can you do this to people? … There’s no right to minimum wage, no right to holidays, no right to refuse dangerous jobs.”

Asked what she wants Alberta’s new NDP government to provide for farm workers, she says: “How about just the rights that everyone else is entitled to? I don’t think I’m asking too much. These are human lives!”

By Elisabeth Ballermann,HSAA President

The lack of safety regulations for workers on Alberta farms is more than an intellectual discussion about

policy for me. It is a personal story of pain and suffering endured by my family.

As a child, I watched my father go to work as a farm worker.

I had no idea that because he worked on a farm, unlike most other workers in the Alberta, he was excluded from any protective labour legislation. No employment standards, no occupational health and safety protection, no coverage by the Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB)

One day, in 1980, he broke his leg at work. He had been told that he was covered by WCB, but this was a lie.

He was hurt. He could not work for several months. There was no compensation, no income replacement. Our family would have been forced into a financial crisis if my then-18-year-old brother had not taken over my father’s duties so that the paycheque continued. In contrast to my father’s situation, when that same brother was later severely injured on a British Columbia ranch, he was fully covered by WCB for treatment and rehabilitation and income replacement until he could return to work.

It is unconscionable that, 35 years later, farm workers

in Alberta are still excluded from occupational health and safety (OHS) regulations and from mandatory inclusion in the WCB insurance system.

These concerns have been ignored by successive governments in Alberta. The inescapable conclusion is that the plight of paid farm workers and their families did not matter to the ruling Conservatives who were more interested in the support of agricultural industry and its lobbyists. For the first time in my adult life, I am hopeful that Alberta’s government – the newly elected New Democratic government – will finally do the right thing for our farm workers, the very people who put food on our tables. This will not only improve the lives of these vital workers, it will reduce the strain on our health-care system.

Research by Bob Barnetson, associate professor of labour relations at Athabasca University, estimates that the medical costs of treating injured farm workers paid by Alberta Health Services (AHS) and individual workers is between $4.5 million and $8 million per year. This does not include wage losses and rehabilitation costs, simply the cost of medical treatments.

In any other industry, the costs of treating injured workers are borne by their employers through WCB premiums.

PAIN from Page 16

Injured worker asks: ‘How can you do this to people?’

My family suffered from farm-safety failings

See INJURED on Page 22

18 Challenger

GLOBAL IMPACT

By Terry Inigo-Jones,HSAA Communications

For Kari and Lorren Lock, comfortable careers in health care

have been transformed into an all-consuming drive to help people in need in the developing world.

Registered Nurse (RN) Kari and dental technologist Lorren gave up a good job and successful business, sold their Calgary home and moved to the Dominican Republic two years ago so they can focus full time on helping people who have little or nothing.

After decades of working in Canada and doing volunteer work for a week or two every year in places including Africa, Pakistan and Mexico, they decided temporary help wasn’t enough.

“It’s been a big step and some days we love it and some days we just want to be back in Canada, where we can drink from the tap and flush the paper and have power all day, to not get sick from the water,” says Kari, who worked at the Rockyview General Hospital and the South Calgary Urgent Care Centre, as well as in northern Canada.

However, the rewards make the sacrifice worthwhile, she says during a recent visit to HSAA’s Calgary office, because “it allows you the opportunity to bring out the best in yourself, to show yourself what you are made of.”

The passion the husband-and-wife team has for their new lives has now engulfed several members of their family – and they’re hoping it will spread to others working in health care here at home.

Kari’s mother Wendy Gilholm, a labour relations officer (LRO) and former member of HSAA, recently got permission from HSAA to donate 20 heavy canvas tote bags which

were then filled with vital supplies including rice, oil, sugar, pasta and dry beans and then given to families of a poor neighbourhood. Gilholm has also spent time volunteering in the Dominican Republic.

Meanwhile, Kari’s 16-year-old daughter Chloe Elliott is currently spending time there at school and volunteering, and her 20-year-old son Mitchell Elliott, who is studying business at university, also visits and helps, as have Kari’s sister-in-law and niece, Melissa and Kendall Pavicic.

But now, Kari has set her sights on getting other health-care professionals to help by considering spending time using their skills in the Dominican Republic, or supporting colleagues

who go there, or raising funds for supplies.

Many of the skills that HSAA members have learned in their careers can be of use in the Dominican Republic, but there’s important non-medical work, too, such as building homes, doing logistics and support work or just spending time with children waiting to be treated.

Kari is particularly keen to get paramedics involved.

“The paramedics (in the Dominican Republic) have a real arduous job because in the back of the ambulance you will find no supplies. Nothing. Not even a pair of gloves.”

Calling health professionals: Wanna help?

REWARDING WORK: Above, Kari Lock with some children she has helped. Below, before-and-after pictures of patients who have received dental reconstruction.

Couple gives up comforts of Canada to give care in Caribbean

See PARAMEDICS on Page 20

Challenger 19

GLOBAL IMPACT

By Brenda Corie, Physiotherapist,Krystle Chilibecki, Physiotherapist, andGlenn Day, Respiratory Therapist

It’s 3 a.m. at Edmonton International Airport. Our team members arrive within minutes of each other, all looking

a bit bleary eyed, but clearly excited about the adventure ahead. The Canadian Association of Medical Teams Abroad (CAMTA) is sending us to Ecuador on its 14th orthopedic medical mission.

Our work began almost a year earlier when team members from across Canada and the world were selected for CAMTA’s mission. The team is comprised of physiotherapists, respiratory therapists, nurses, orthopedic surgeons, anesthesiologists, family physicians, Spanish translators and non-medical volunteers.

CAMTA is an organization of volunteers. Each member uses vacation time or unpaid leave while participating in the mission. We are required to either pay or fundraise almost $3,000. For many, this is the most stressful part of the mission. Fortunately, CAMTA is a registered charity, so donations by family, friends and work colleagues are tax deductible. HSAA’s Social Justice Committee generously sponsored each of us with $500!

Each group is assigned a team leader who oversees the mission preparation. Medical supplies are purchased or acquired through donation by medical-supply companies. The team leaders co-ordinate packing sessions at the CAMTA warehouse. Hockey bags are filled and the contents are itemized for vetting by the Ecuadorian consulate.

After almost 24 hours of travel, we arrive in Ecuador’s capital city of Quito. It is a large city with 2.6-million residents and is situated 9,350 feet above sea level. The team will perform procedures at the Hospital Padre Jose Carollo Un Canto a la Vida, which is operated by The Tierra Nueva Foundation. This is a non-profit organization which serves people with scarce economic resources in south Quito. The majority of the 13 million people in Ecuador have minimal access to proper orthopedic care.

For the next eight days, we will board the morning bus departing to the hospital, returning 12 to 15 hours later. The Ecuadorian patients greet us with nervous smiles, but are full of anticipation. In a few hours they are through the operating room and already mobilizing up and down the halls on crutches or walkers.

Having only known pain for many years, the grins on their faces reinforce the reason we chose health care as

Patient grins payment enough for volunteers

our profession, the reason we have put so much effort into planning this mission. By the end of the week, we will have changed the lives of 58 Ecuadorians living in poverty and pain. All the adult patients will have hip arthroplasties (replacements), some of them having both hips done. The operations not only change the physical health of our patients, but break the cycle of family poverty, with better employment opportunities through improved mobility.

Many of our pediatric patients will have club feet or hip dysplasia repair. While parents shed tears of gratitude and thanks, the older children have visions of joining their friends on the soccer pitch. In fact, all the children receive new soccer balls as gifts from CAMTA!

In Ecuador the majority of club feet are left untreated.

AFTER THE OPERATION: An Ecuadorian child recovers from surgery and can now look forward to playing soccer!

20 Challenger

LABOUR HISTORY/GLOBAL IMPACT

They lack training and supplies and would benefit greatly from having Albertans share their skills and learning.

“I’m going to start knocking on some doors, I’m going to start talking to some of the paramedics I know just to see if it is in their hearts to serve elsewhere, to be somewhere where they are not comfortable, where they are challenged, where they can take all that they have learned and all the different experiences and try to pass it on to someone else who needs it and hasn’t had that privileged education.”

Kari and Lorren are in the process of setting up the Hand in Hands foundation, which may not be complete for another six to 12 months. It is already established as a society and charitable donations can be made through their non-denominational church, the Sunwest Christian Fellowship. For more information on donating or volunteering, visit www.handinhands.org.

The work is already underway and focuses on a variety of areas, including dental reconstruction for people with missing teeth, education, home building, food and harm reduction or safety training.

The dental reconstruction is about much more than creating smiles, it’s about addressing a serious health issue. Missing teeth means people cannot chew their food properly and that leads to all kinds of digestive issues. The beautiful smiles are a bonus. After the dental procedures, patients “went into the bathroom and would be looking at themselves in the mirror and just start crying because they were so overcome,” says Kari.

How do the locals react to the help being offered?“They generally are really shocked … (they) can’t believe

that people who live so comfortably and have everything would drop it, would leave their families, leave everything, leave a paid job for a week and come over to work with us.”

Kari and Lorren have no regrets over their life-changing decision to move to the Dominican Republic. Lorren had a massive heart attack about a year ago, but a few months later they were both back “doing our thing.”

“I think the reason I can say I don’t have regrets is because if I had to do it all over again I would still choose to go,” she says.

By Alvin Finkel,Professor Emeritus, Athabasca University

The trade union movement played an important role in persuading the Canadian government to implement a

universal medicare plan, a health insurance program paid for by the government from its general revenues.

Medicare meant that an individual needing to see a physician or to receive medical treatment in a hospital paid nothing for that service.

By the 1940s, most Canadians supported a universal medicare plan. But the Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce opposed it, claiming that individuals and families should buy private, for-profit health insurance or pay for services out of pocket. But by the early 1960s, only six Canadians out of 10 could afford any form of private health insurance.

The federal government set up a royal commission to investigate medical services in Canada. Business and doctors’ organizations told the commission that the private sector was dealing adequately with Canadians’ health needs.

The trade union movement demonstrated that this was untrue. Most unions had negotiated health insurance policies with their employers, and the unions argued that

private health insurers overcharged, restricted the services that they covered and usually imposed co-payments for clients seeking services.

Meanwhile, social workers provided evidence that Canada’s poor rarely sought medical help because they could not afford it. The commission concluded that only a government-run program financed through the tax system would insure that no Canadian avoided going to doctors or hospitals for financial reasons.

A federal Liberal minority government introduced medicare although that party had failed to introduce such a program during earlier periods in office. They acted because of the commission report and because they lacked a majority of seats and depended on the votes of the New Democratic Party MPs to remain in office. The NDP was mostly funded by unions and demanded medicare as part of the price to keep the Liberals in power.

Since medicare was introduced in 1968, unions have fought for it to cover more medical services, including coverage of prescribed medications, visits to dentists, home care and long-term care for seniors and the disabled.

(This article first appeared in The Bark, published by The Aspen Foundation for Labour Education. For more information, visit www.afle.ca)

Unions led campaign to create medicare

PARAMEDICS from Page 18

Locals would benefit from experience of Alberta care professionals

Challenger 21

PROFESSION PROFILE

By Kim Adonyi,HSAA Communications

When you think of all the health-care specialists in Alberta looking after your well being, what

professions do you think of first? Did Public Health Inspector (PHI) make the top 10?

We seldom think of our health inspectors as being part of the health-care system, but they play a key role in the health of our communities, from recreation facilities, to food manufacturers to work/recreation/church camps in the remote parts of the province, Public Health Inspectors are an essential part of keeping Albertans healthy.

Armed with two university degrees and national certification, PHIs learn to tackle almost every kind of health hazard out there. Urban PHIs may focus on one specialty (food, housing, care centres, recreation, etc.), while rural PHIs are called to manage various issues.

“Our work is more than just inspections,” says HSAA member Mike Swystun, a Public Health Inspector in the Alberta Health Services South Zone.

“As rural PHIs, we have to do a little of everything. I specialize in oil and gas and industrial activities, but I also

work with emergency response, providing information on the health effects of different situations and sit on committees to advise on specific health components. Rural PHIs also work with outbreaks and disease control.

“When you work in rural Alberta, you have to do it all, but that’s part of what I love about the job – you’re always learning new things.”

Learning new things generally means rural PHIs need to keep current on the various health issues that come into their purview. This requires them to read up on all the health concerns associated with rural locations – in addition to doing inspections.

“It’s a lot but it keeps things interesting. Our work is never the same from one day to the next.”

One of Swystun’s pleasures is travelling to other countries. As a Public Health Inspector, his experiences in economically challenged locations bring a sense of appreciation for the rigorous health requirements of Canada.

“There are places, especially in some tropical parts of the world, where there is no public health. Our quality of life in Canada is wonderful and I suspect it is in large part due to our public-health measures.”

DOWN ON THE (WIND) FARM: From left, Alberta Health Service (AHS) South Zone rural health inspectors Wade Goin, Theron White, Kristen Dykstra, John Younger and Mike Swystun during an inspection at a southern Alberta wind farm. HSAA represents 223 public health inspectors – 58 in Calgary, 56 in Edmonton and 109 rural inspectors.

Inspectors play key role in keeping us healthyPhoto courtesy of Geoff Tomko

22 Challenger

HAVE YOUR SAY

Dear Ms. Elisabeth Ballermann (HSAA president),

Thank you so much for letting me attend the 21st annual AFL Kids Camp. I really enjoyed it and hope to go back next year.

I did lots of fun things like canoeing, rafting, swimming, kayaking, hiking, rock climbing, canyon rappel and archery. My favourites were canyon rappel and kayaking.

I also learned a lot of stuff about unions, like that this year all the unions are teaming up to save the environment. I’ve never known how important unions are until I went to this camp.

I think that at camp you should add horseback riding and zip lining. That would make the camp even more fun and exciting.

I would also like to thank HSAA for all the goodies you gave the campers. I got a rain poncho and water bottle. Can you also thank the other unions for all the stuff they gave me?

Thank you once again for this INCREDIBLE opportunity! I hope that you will fund me to go again next year.

Avni Khepar,Grande Prairie

(Avni is the daughter of HSAA member Giandeep Khepar, a laboratory technologist at the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Grande Prairie.)

Kids Camper says thanks for the memories

Nominate a child you know for Kids’ Camp

Do you know a child who would be interested in attending next year’s AFL Kids Camp? HSAA will pay the registration cost for up to 15 children nominated by HSAA members. These children do not have to be related to you – any child you know can be nominated. This year, the registration fee was $400 per child.

HSAA will also sponsor up to three members to be adult leaders/volunteers for the camp. To find out more, please email Diane Brown at dianeb@hsaa.ca and Susan Gauthier at susang@hsaa.ca.

For paid farm workers hurt on the job and who aren’t covered by WCB, those costs are borne by AHS, i.e., the citizens of Alberta, and by the injured workers themselves. I know the 24,000 front-line health-care professional represented by HSAA would prefer to see those public dollars used to improve our health-care and social-support systems.

Extending safety laws to paid farm workers will prevent injuries, save lives and save money. Making WCB mandatory, as it is for most other industries, will ensure that the costs are borne by the industry, adding further motivation to make their workplaces safe.

In an era when innovation is a key driver of our economy, we should not be faced with an agricultural employment conditions that harken back to the 19th century. This preferential treatment of one industry must stop. This continuing abuse of the rights of farm workers must stop.

INJURED from Page 17

Albertans pay for treatment of workers

FUN AND GAMES: Avni Khepar enjoys the Kids Camp adventure.Photo courtesy of Alberta Federation of Labour

Challenger 23

NEW HQ/DID YOU KNOW?

IT PAYS TO BELONG TO

HSAA HAS A NEW MEMBER DISCOUNT?

THE BRICK Commercial Design Centre is offering commercial pricing to all HSAA members. The Commercial Design Centre offers the same furnishings, electronics and appliances that you’ll find in every BRICK store and online, but at commercial pricing.

Simply visit your local BRICK store or check out the products online (www.thebrick.com), then make your appointment with The BRICK’s Commercial Design Centre and use your HSAA membership to access your discount.

To access your commercial preferred pricing certificate, simply log in to your HSAA web account and select the “Member Resources” tab and the “Discount” link in the drop-down menu.

Appointment instructions are noted on the certificate and must be followed to obtain special pricing.

DID YOU KNOW ...

By Trudy Thomson,HSAA Project Manager

We are thrilled that the “SOLD” sign has gone up on our current office, despite the downturn in the economy.

The timing worked out perfectly, as we are rapidly approaching completion on our new building. It’s hard to believe that we were just breaking ground a year ago, and here we are selecting window coverings and finalizing moving plans with our staff. I can’t wait until we open our doors in January 2016, and your new “Union Hall” is ready for business.

HAPPY DAYS: HSAA staff, from left, Gillian Booth, Lynette McAvoy, Darlene Gislason, Kerry Woollard and Dave Chipchura celebrate.Terry Inigo-Jones, HSAA

Out of the old, into the new!

Health Sciences Association of Alberta10212 112 StreetEdmonton, AB T5K 1M4780-488-01681-800-252-7904www.hsaa.ca

Check www.hsaa.ca for upcoming events

Upcoming HSAA Workshops

In-Scope Supervisor:The goal of this full-day workshop is to improve communication between HSAA and our supervisory members through an increased understanding of each other’s roles, expectations and concerns. Focus is placed on education regarding dispute resolution, progressive discipline, performance evaluation and seniority and how it relates to promotion, transfer and vacation preferences. Participants learn to strike an appropriate balance between their in-scope supervisory functions and their accountability to senior management.

Bullying & Harassment:Have you or your coworkers been bullied or harassed in the workplace? This practical workshop will provide an introduction to both of these concepts. We will discuss the causes and impacts, the roles of those involved and how to address and prevent bullying and harassment.

CalgaryDecember 2

EdmontonDecember 9

CalgaryDecember 1

The schedule of workshops for 2016 is still being finalized. Details will be announced on our website at http://hsaa.ca/events.