MUHC Union Presidents keep planned job cuts ‘secret’ – while the members unknowing train their replacements
The MUHC CSN Union President and 1st President directly received confirmation regarding the assistants-techniques en laboratoire job cuts at the Glen and MGH, nine months before the job cuts took place, and did not transfer the information to the employees. Meanwhile their members trained the replacements under the pretense of vacation and sick leave replacement.
The MUHC reason for the cuts is Bill 49, which transfers tasks previously preformed by the assistants-techniques en laboratoire to the technologistes médicaux. According to the Ordre professionnel des technologistes médicaux du Québec website, Bill 49 was only tabled at the National Assembly and is not a law.
In the first week of March 2018, a communication is addressed to Daphnay Mondelus, 1st President for the MUHC CSN Union. The communication from Labour Relations, indicates there will be changes in both the Glen and MGH labs, and that the changes involve job cuts. They also mention previously having discussed this with Union President Robert Lagueux.
Approximately two weeks later another communication is address to Mondelus, stating the employers intention to replace the assistants-techniques en laboratoire (CSN) with technologistes médicaux, who belong to a different accreditation (APTS).
On April 23rd, the assistants-techniques en laboratoire are asked to train the technologistes médicaux, under the pretense that the training is for vacation and sick leave replacement.
Lab cuts start at the Montreal General Hospital’s.
On October 23, 2018, seven months after the employer informed the union about the position cuts, the MGH assistants-techniques en laboratoire were given a departmental memo, and were informed that their positions were closed and to contact their union.
The cuts at the MGH Lab took effect on December 07, 2018, nine months after the employer informed the union about the position cuts.
The positions abolished at the MGH include, 2 full time employees each with 30 or more years of service and 1 parttime employee with 25 years of service.
The cuts at the Glen Central Lab are expected to take place after the holidays.
Both Robert Lagueux and Daphnay Mondelus were emailed for a comment.
From Lagueux, we did not receive a response. Mondelus, responded by stating that other union representatives were also aware of the proposed abolition’s.
Not the only case
According to Manuel Fernandes, former interim-president and VP for OHS MUHCEU, in a file where the group of employees lost and continue to lose thousands of dollars in salary, no headway has been made on the part of the union, despite all which remained was to write a question and select a hearing date.
On October 04, 2017 the FSSS/CSN consultant on the file emailed Fernandes, saying she spoke with the employers lawyer and the plan was to set a meeting to determine the question/s and then select a date.
“On September 05, 2017, the arbitrator for the declaratory judgment (Jugement déclaratoire) was selected, all that remained was to write the question and select a hearing date with the employer”, Fernandes said. “As of November 26, 2018, nearly, 15 months since the selection of the arbitrator, there has been no hearing, no question and no date.”