And what about the other side of the shortage story? Yesterday, you heard the KHMHA CEO say that they're working together in good faith to iron out their issues, so she was a bit surprised when the staff showed up in shorts this morning. Chandra Cansino explained that they had to have another meeting this morning, and what the KHMHWU referred to as "union busting," was simply the hospital ensuring that the hygiene quality was upheld.
Today, we spoke with her about her reaction to the learning that the union was going through with the protests.
Chandra Cansino, CEO, KHMHA
"Of course, we were a little disappointed but we respect the union's right to their representation. Of course the supervisors, we don't have a schedule of what they're doing to do, we were told a little bit here and there so of course supervisors acted, as they should, to hold the staff accountable to the dress code policy, this is a medical care institution, we take care of patients, shorts is an infection control issue, and so they issued a few notices this morning, but when we saw it, we called in the union executive, they immediately came into a meeting with us about 9:00 and then we agreed to hold back a little until they meet with their membership and make a decision as to how they want to go forward."
Courtney Menzies:
"Are you preparing for if they go through with their other protests, the go slow as well as the walk out?"
Chandra Cansino, CEO, KHMHA
"We're taking it one day at a time and really hoping for good faith, that is where we still are at, acting in good faith, hoping that the union will join us in solving the problem because we all know what the problems are, we've heard them over and over, we are solving some of them, some of them as we discussed yesterday will take a little bit longer because it involves a whole tendering process, they all understood, they all agreed so we are looking for a positive way forward."
Courtney Menzies:
"Do you feel that it was an act of bad faith though the fact that they went through with the protest after yesterday's four hour long meeting?"
Chandra Cansino, CEO, KHMHA
"Well, the truth is that it was a short time for them to be able to reach out to their membership and they did say that they needed to reach back out to their membership to get their mandate because they had already agreed on these actions so it was as I said disappointing but I understand that process also does take a while so we're waiting it out and hoping for the best."
"We had another meeting this morning, it went fairly well again and the agreement is to come to a solution and go forward and to ask the labor department, the Ministry of Labor, to join us in the process to ensure that everyone knows what they're doing and we're going in the right direction."
