AHS sows chaos by privatizing hospital laundry services
EDMONTON—Alberta Health Services (AHS) has officially begun the process for privatizing the remainder of laundry services, in line with Premier Kenney’s plan to destroy public health care in Alberta.
AHS opened a Request for Proposals (RFP) today (October 23), soliciting private business to take over laundry services across the province. They expect to pick a vendor by March 15, 2021. This scheme is projected to upend the lives of 428 staff, almost all of whom are Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) members.
“This would impact AUPE members working at 54 sites across the province, from Grande Prairie to Medicine Hat,” says AUPE Vice-President Kevin Barry. “Jason Kenney wants to corrode their working conditions, pay, benefits, hours, and more. Privatizing laundry also results in lower quality and sometimes unsafe services as staff are forced to cut corners to create profit for the private owners.”
With over 90,000 members, AUPE is western Canada’s largest union, and members report a strong will to fight and win against Premier Jason Kenney’s cruel and disastrous plans.
“Canadians decided long ago that the super-rich should not exploit our health care services just so they can hide their looting in offshore accounts,” says Barry.
“But now Jason Kenney wants to jeopardize Alberta’s health care, and in the middle of a pandemic? For crying out loud, that’s super-villain stuff! But Alberta is not a comic book, and this decision will hurt real people.”
One of the documents related to the privatization scheme is an AHS Facility Visit Request Form, which includes the option for the businesses to tour Covenant Health as well as Carewest and Capital Care worksites, where staff provide care for seniors and many other Albertans.
“This is entirely new information,” says Barry. “This goes beyond AHS. Do these money-grubbers want to profit off laundry services in public seniors care centres too?”
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AUPE Vice President Kevin Barry is available for interviews.
Please contact Alexander Delorme, AUPE communications officer: 780-264-9274