Hospital support staff making themselves heard

A group of support staff from the CIUSSS de l’Estrie – CHUS, the Eastern Townships’ regional healthcare institution, held a gathering and demonstration in front of the Hotel-Dieu hospital on Tuesday to show support for negotiations currently underway between the administration and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). According to union member Carle Couture, the current negotiatons are a by-product of the healthcare reform that created the CIUSSS in the first place “There are 110 establishments in the CIUSSS de l’Estrie that all had to establish local agreements,” the delegate representative said. “Now we have to make one.” Couture acknowledged that the task of negotiating one overall agreement for all support staff working at more than 100 very different establishments is not a simple one for either side of the discussion, but he pointed out that ­circumstance and administrative decisions have put everyone this place. See full story in the Wednesday, May 9th edition of The Record.