Essential Serve This (05.07.04)
"The halo's gone and the horns are getting clearer"
S. Luallen
"I hate unions!"
"I hate the government!"
Personally, I hate it all. It sickens me to no end the
amount of drivel from this ridiculous argument. The whole time people
yell at the unions and the government they're fighting over the same thing.
Our healthcare system is in shambles and must be saved.
Some think that everyone deserves equal healthcare. Others
believe that the only way to save healthcare is to privatize it. Personally
I believe that our healthcare system is better off being public because
public companies don't have to show a profit. Private companies do. When
you walk into a hospital would you rather be seen as a patient or a customer?
Recently the cleaning staff was privatized and what a
difference a profit makes. Back in the day when a patient's contaminated
blood, feces or vomit spilled to the floor the nurse had only to call
housekeeping and it would be cleaned. Now the nurse must phone a call
center in Florida, Asia or wherever, they then contact the company who
calls someone to clean the mess. Not to mention the horribly expensive
procedure of sterilizing sheets. Oh well if you?re really sick you wont
even notice.
As for essential services being affected by the job action.
I'm sure if he was still alive that fellow who died of a heart attack
near a closed hospital would eloquently argue that essential services
have been affected for a long time. Constant cuts have made hospitals
a horrible place to work with morale so low that it's sometimes tough
to tell who's the most sick.
Sadly, the worst is yet to come. The Liberals have made
it clear, we don't negotiate with terrorists, err, unions. Why negotiate
at all when they simply have to wait for the strike, then legislate them
back to work, forcing them to swallow the contract they're given. With
that attitude one can only cringe thinking about the nurses contract soon
to expire.
And if that wasn,t exciting enough, the teachers will
soon be on the chopping block as well. To put the teacher situation in
perspective you have to appreciate that last time Gordon Campbell talked
to them, they were in court. You see, the Liberals decided to take away
the teachers right to discuss the terms of their contract. The supreme
court found that unconstitutional. So then the Liberals made a new law
saying they can't bargain no matter what any court of law says. Now there's
the kind of law abiding example we should set for our children.
So the war on union's continues to rage, hurting all
the innocent people who rely on public care. I suppose it's just business
as usual in a political climate that insists: when it comes to health
care or education, if you cant afford it, you don't deserve it.
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