After witnessing the devastating impact of the novel coronavirus on many long-term care homes and its staff, the president of Canada’s largest private sector union says the country needs “a better system than we have today.” In an interview with host Mercedes Stephenson, Dias said his union represents thousands of health-care workers, including personal support workers employed both in for-profit and not-for-profit long-term care facilities.
Many of these nursing homes only offer casual or part-time work to personal support workers, forcing them to take on two or three jobs “to make ends meet,” he said.
This problem is exacerbated in for-profit environments, he claimed, because those companies want to avoid paying salaries and providing