More protests

On May 27, members of the APTS-FIQ alliance in the Laurentians gathered at the office of finance minister Éric Girard in Sainte-Thérèse. Their protest was a collective demonstration that they are sick and tired of the government refusing to pay nurses and professional and technical personnel what they’re worth.

FEMINIST ACTION
Web app on workplace harassment

The Help and Information Center on Sexual Harassment in the Workplace (GAIHST) has created a web app as an information and awareness-raising tool for anyone wanting to know more about the issue of workplace harassment. The app provides information under four different headings: types of harassment, what to do if you think you’re being harassed, your rights and avenues of recourse, and laws and employer obligations. The app works on smartphones, tablets, and computers, and is available for download and consultation in both English and French at harassment-app.com.

Pushing for better daycare access

Difficulties with access to daycare and the decrease in women’s workplace participation rate are both major concerns at the APTS. For this reason, we support the citizen movement Ma place au travail, which has launched several activist initiatives related to daycare access. You have until June 7 to sign their online petition demanding that the Quebec government…

• recognize the state of crisis caused by the lack of places in daycares;
• create a provincial emergency plan;
• propose a plan to create all of the places that are currently lacking;
• recognize the full value of childcare professions.

SOCIO-POLITICAL ACTION
Against vaccine apartheid

The APTS, alongside ten other labour unions, has signed a letter to the Canadian government (in French) demanding the suspension of pharmaceutical companies’ intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines and the immediate distribution of excess doses to countries that still don’t have vaccine access. Today’s grievous inequalities in vaccination levels are an enormous threat to long-term health for all of the world’s population.

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
Work overload: a recognized risk factor

Work overload is one of the six most significant psychosocial risk factors in the workplace, with negative impacts on both physical and psychological health for health and social services workers. Our info-sheet will help you do your part to act against this serious and all-too-common problem. We invite you to check out both the document and the resources it offers.

ORGANIZATION OF WORK AND PROFESSIONAL ISSUES
Support for rehabilitation

The government has finally decided to invest $21 million in intensive behavioural rehabilitation services for people living with a physical disability, an intellectual disability, or an autism spectrum disorder and who also have a severe behaviour disorder. The APTS welcomes this good news, with the caveat that major improvements to the working conditions of its members are still needed to attract and retain employees. Otherwise, genuine improvements to services for people with disabilities will be impossible.

Do you care about the rights of people living with  a disability? You may want to join in a mobilization activity organized in Montréal by PHAS (Disabled People for Access to Services) on June 10.