On Wed, Aug 8th, the gargantuan union, Unifor, brought in 100s of unionists from across Ontario and Manitoba to surround a medical clinic in Thunder Bay.
The union has been on strike since April 6th. But this was different.
Unifor strongmen set up fences around all the entrances. Police leave the new unionists alone.
Police want peace, not respect for the law. They refuse to escort doctors into the doctors’ medical offices.
After the fences, many docs worked on electronic medical records from home. They called patients. They used the Home Telehealth app to provide virtual visits. They innovated to provide care.
The courts issued an injunction to stop the illegal activity. Unifor defied it and went further.
On Friday, unionists filled door locks with glue, cut power lines and phone lines, and shut down WiFi.
Now docs have nothing. No way to check lab results. No way to inform patients about critical results.
Power outages can change lives. For instance, banked sperm thaws without refilling the cryo. This means parents might never get genetically related siblings.
Patients wait over a year to see some specialists. Patients take time off, travel in from out of town, and often spend a night in a local hotel.
The unionists do not care. They use force to deny entry.
On Wednesday, a few docs arrived at 0530, their usual start time. The out of town union muscle put up their fence at 0700. Then the unionists wouldn’t let the doctors out.
Does forcible confinement not apply to unions?
Union boss, Jerry Dias, demands a ‘living wage’. But that never came up in negotiations before.
Besides, clinic full timers earn mid $20 per hour with solid benefit packages. Only casual workers earn minimum wage.
Casual workers might serve as ‘corridor assistants’ calling patients from the waiting room to the next available exam room. No experience, training, or education required.
Unifor is a giant. It uses multi millions of annual dues to intimidate a handful of doctors who’ve been hit with 30% cuts to take home pay since 2012, after inflation.
The clinic offered generous wage increases, despite doctors being cut, but Unifor wanted more. Since the strike started in April, doctors have realized they can function with less help.
The strike has forced docs to get efficient and creative. Many job positions will be obsolete when the strike ends.
And doctors are leaving. They cannot wait. Patients need help. Docs need new offices off site.
Even if the clinic wanted to offer the same increases to all the same employees as they did in April, the clinic won’t have the same number of doctors left to pay for it.
Western democracy rests on the rule of law. When government refuses to enforce the law, we have chaos. When media promotes union messages, without condemning the impact to patients, we have chaos.
The unionists are breaking the law, and the authorities let them do it. Who has the courage to stand up for patients, law, and society?
The left is slowly moving towards anarchy. Destroy property, open borders, sue the police , tear down ancient statues, attack those that society respects such as doctors. We are moving into a world that is alienating and all respect for the values we thought were part of our society are going. The police follow their leadership that tells them to stand down. They pick a side and don’t follow the law. More chaos. Bullies win. It is no longer an issue about pay. It is a far deeper reflection of how those in our society watch how governments act and feel they can do the same. Cheating, stealing, assaulting, abusing. We are on a road that is going nowhere and I am glad that I have minimal years ahead to watch it. ( 70 next week!)
You touch on the deeper issue, Pat. I agree, behaviour matters. This behaviour comes from Saul Alinsky’s playbook, Rules for Radicals: a pragmatic primer for realistic radicals.
Amazon describes Rules for Radicals as “First published in 1971, Rules for Radicals is Saul Alinsky’s impassioned counsel to young radicals on how to effect constructive social change and know “the difference between being a realistic radical and being a rhetorical one.” ”
And, ““Alinsky’s techniques and teachings influenced generations of community and labor organizers, including the church-based group hiring a young [Barack] Obama to work on Chicago’s South Side in the 1980s…. Alinsky impressed a young [Hillary] Clinton, who was growing up in Park Ridge at the time Alinsky was the director of the Industrial Areas Foundation in Chicago.” —Chicago Sun-Times”
When we tear down law, history and culture using mobs and violence, we lose everything. No culture on earth is perfect. But Western Civilization has offered more freedom and human flourishing in all of known history. Dialogue, reason, free speech, private property, individual freedom, and the rule of law — these must be protected. No mob has the right to tear apart our civilization. Shame on the authorities for not shutting this down.
Thanks again for taking time to read and share a thoughtful comment!
Cheers
I was saddened but not shocked when I read about this. Our past government and particularity our past health minister has spent the last several years vilifying physicians and spreading damaging propaganda to destroy the relationship of physicians with the public. Patients are particularity vulnerable to this misinformation but so are health care workers. This fire has been fueled by the manipulations of our past government and made much worst by the lack of an education campaign by our physician association. Let’s face the truth. Aggressively cutting funding to physician services impacts patients directly, but also impacts patients indirectly by its effects on health care workers. The public needs education to correct the falacies they have been exposed too. The OMA needs to step up to the plate and start spreading the hard truths about our health care system. Otherwise, the legacy of our past government will live on with manifestations like these. A legacy that pays no head to it’s impact on the lives of patients.
Thank you Shawn for all the work you have done.
Great comment, Paul. A good name, one lost, takes forever to regain, if you ever do. Years of vilification by Hoskins and company may have left an irreversible stain. It’s the same thing that drives people to tear down statues of great leaders who built our country. No one is perfect. But that does not mean blaming doctors for everything wrong is okay.
Thanks again Paul!
Since the FPs cannot get to work, or work at all, what is to prevent them from resigning and going their own way?
Surely the CPSO cannot force them to remain , impotently inactive , at their posts , unable to care for their patients…what if there are mishaps where patients are concerned …what is the attitude of the CMPA in such circumstances.
Have there been any counter demonstrations by the patients and the community?
If not, why not?
Should not the FPs involved declare a “force majeure” and move to a more amenable work environment?
There are clinics and communities elsewhere in Ontario and Canada that would welcome MD refugees from these communities.
I am in total agreement Andris. The clinic will likely never again function properly given the animosity and distrust arising in this scenario.
Shawn mentioned Saul Alinsky. I read Rules for Radicals in graduate school. Didn’t he dedicate his book to Lucifer, the “first true radical”? The goal of radicals is to tear things down, generate chaos, demand their “rights” with no concern for the consequences. We are observing this firsthand in Thunder Bay. I would be curious to know how CMPA is advising these physicians.
Great comment, Andris, and reply, Alicia.
We only hear one side mentioned in the media, and they never take the side of patients or physicians. The clinic will never be the same again. Even when it reopens, a number of docs will have found the reason they needed to look elsewhere.
Alicia, I forgot about Alinsky’s dedication! Thanks for reminding me.
Sure appreciate you both taking time to read and post comments!
Cheers
Shawn does say that some doctors are “leaving”. But easy to see why that is hard. In ThunderBay major issue is geography; you would be leaving all your patients as there is not even a small town in less than 2 hours (N. or W.) CPSO says you need to give your patients notice of leaving a community, unless there is a Replacement MD. This clinic may be Real Estate of the doctors. But then, maybe that’s what they have to do: sell the building, and re-establish their FHT as a network of small-offices with non-union, non-professional office assistants. Would not be the same service to the population, but the community let this happen & so they deserve less service. If I had been confined by these thugs, I would have called 911, and would sue that Union. (I worked for years in NWOnt., you have to be really self-sufficient out in that district, the distances and weather both fierce.) Not so sad to be retiring a few years early (I’ve gone nearly deaf); it seems Patients have no idea how much we live & breathe our work —see how hard these docs tried to deliver services!! I’ve read elsewhere that some of the workers also care about patients & dislike the Union’s tactics —some have “quit” their jobs, so to quit the union, and maybe will go and work for the docs who leave.
All great comments, Susan.
You are right. I believe that some docs own shares/part ownership in the clinic, but I am not certain about this. I could ask around. I think the docs did call for help, but police only came to ‘keep the peace’. They called it a crime scene. Eventually, they escorted a few docs inside to top up cryo tanks, I heard.
Very sorry to hear about your hearing! I hope it turns into a silver lining with the early retirement you mention. It sounds like you’ve earned it. I sure hope you had the chance to prepare and that signing off a bit early doesn’t ruin your new adventures.
Thanks so much for taking time to share a comment!
Best wishes,
Shawn
So where does the college come down on this ??
We as physicians, cannot do any form of job action or activity that will put patients at risk in any attempt to advocate for ourselves with government.
But here, pt’s are being put at risk and who’s stepping in to help them? No-one that I can see. Are nurses part of this strike ? Does the RNO not have a policy about putting pt’s at risk ? Does Unifor not care about pt’s that their actions threaten lives of pt’s seeking care ? Government only cares when they can bash doctors for their own ends. When someone else puts pt’s at risk but it doesn’t involve votes for them… then I guess they say, “so what..”
Imagine the response of the media if it was the clinic’s MD that were on strike…putting up barriers around the clinic , cutting the lines and gluing the locks so that patients could not access the clinic?
As it is the media has been silent presumably fearful of the union and the SJWarriors supporting the “oppressed” strikers as they try to intimidate the supposedly “ rich and greedy” MDs…where are our own profession’s SJWarriors who would be screaming at this point if it was the MDs that were on strike, depriving patients of care?
Their silence implies acquiescence.
It would seen that it perfectly acceptable , in modern society, to put the boot into the grassroots members of the medical profession , abusing them even as they demand that same members of the medical profession remain attentive and caring to the kicker’s woes at the same time….bandaging the blistered left hallux of the brutish kicker …no wonder that there is increasing burn out at the grass roots.
I agree with Alicia , the strikers have poisoned the well where this clinic and it’s like are concerned….what MD would sign a contract to work in such a clinic?….as it is as more MDs make an exit , the remaining MDs will be left to bear the increased work load and be forced to honour the contents of the extorted contract to employees with all of its guarantees, whilst they themselves have no guarantees where own income and wellbeing are concerned .
Those that pay attention to the writing on the wall , and take action and make a run for it will survive, those that ignore it will be crushed.
I agree, Rob and Andris. No one seems to champion the patients’ cause.
One patient/family member was punched by a unionist. Unifor did not denounce the attack. Their security guard force did not prevent it (9-10 guards flown in from Toronto on duty 24/7). I think we can guess what’s most important to Unifor. Just think about how much Unifor is spending on this one event. This is about power, pure and unadulterated.
This strike and Unifor’s actions bring to light so much of what we’ve all been saying for years. It’s painful to watch it play out live. We could have written the media pieces ourselves before the CBC et al “reported” them.
Thanks again for taking time to read and post comments!
Cheers
Shawn the CMA seems to be in the process of becoming a `force majeure` in advocating for `patients` and abandoning its representative vision and mission statements that once proudly proclaimed itself as the voice of the physicians of Canada.
Here`s an ideal situation for the CMA board to exert some muscle on behalf of Canadian patients and use some of the new billions it aquired on the recent sale of MD Holdings.
But will they also stand silent on the sidelines?
Hey John!
Sorry for the late response. I was at the cottage. I like your suggestion! Let’s see what they say this Sunday and following in Winnipeg, eh? See you there mate!
Cheers
It is illegal for doctors to strike as we are considered essential service, so how can the union be permitted to close this essential clinic? Also, this would be an ideal time for OMA to step up and take this on as our negotiating body…
Hey Sam
Good to hear from you! I miss your passion and comments. I guess I’m out of the firing line now? 😉
This is a tricky one. Do most docs want the OMA to wade in? I’m always a sucker for rushing to help the local docs who are trying to run a small business. But is that what all the docs in Ontario want? Does the OMA have the money for a big legal fight with a gargantuan union (300,000 + members!)
We need to speak truth to power, even if it means they attack us. Unifor feed their faithful a full diet of lies and misdirection. It’s hard to get the facts out.
Thanks again for your posting!
Cheers