Why are so many #COVID19 outbreaks in #LongTermCare? Decades of defunding, cost-cutting, and unwillingness to legislate minimum standards of care mean that ~40% of non-RN workers in long-term care work in >1 facility in order to *make ends meet*!
1/x

Management (incl #AHS ) is reluctant to hire people like LPNs, HCAs & rec therapists full-time, so workers cobble together multiple jobs with low pay and terrible benefits. Mgmt relies on part time and casual employees & doesn't hire extra to cover sick time.
2/x

Even in good times, #LongTermCare are understaffed. Now, if #ableg decided that workers could only work in one facility, there would not be enough workers in any facility. Workers would also not be able to support themselves, or be eligible for CERB.
3/x

So workers keep going to all their sites and doing their best to reduce the spread. But it will never be enough while #LongTermCare workers make poverty wages, have minimal job protection, and inadequate benefits because their employers don't want to give full-time hours.
4/x

#ableg needs to:
Legislate minimum care hours for #LongTermCare.
Legislate a minimum livable wage.
Nationalize (well, provincialize) residential care - profit motive has no place in essential care.
We owe this to #EssentialWorkers & our elders & disabled community.
5/5