An Open Letter from a Member

One of our members wrote this open letter dated May 19, 2014.

Dear All Who Should Care,

Artspace Housing Cooperative Ltd. (Artspace) has 88-units of which 29 are designated barrier-free and all the Residents of Artspace, in particular, the Residents with disabilities, have been subjected to legalised bullying these past 10 days... and it continues.  A strike is legalised bullying: the bully is actually seeking power over the person being bullied.  There is no physical bullying but there was plenty of verbal bullying: words used to hurt or humiliate another person that included plenty of name-calling, insults, racist comments and constant harassment because this type of bullying was the easiest to inflict upon the residents - including children and people who use wheelchairs - because it was quick ot deliver, to the point and of course, untrue.

You may or may not have heard that our tiny community was infected by a strike from the 30 Supports for Artspace Independent Living (SAIL) employees who provide supportive care to 30 residents.  The very same employees who are supposedly compassionate enough to assist people with disabilities and senior lead a satisfactory (or better) quality of life have chosen to betray our trust for more money.  These employees are the highest paid for the type of work they do and the level of education (4 months of instructions) required to become a certified Health Care Aide (HCA).  They also want benefits but when benefits were introduced a few years ago, the benefits were rejected because it was too expensive.

The bullying is condoned by the Alberta Labour Relations Board (ALRB) when they ruled in favour of the Union this past Friday by forcing the residents at Artspcae to allow the workers back to their jobs.  The ALRB has set precedent that allows unions to bully you a home and then expects us to acquiesce and allow the workers to return to our homes and continue working like nothing happened?!  The Residents with disabilities and others are already vulnerable and we're expected to forgive the bullying and welcome them back with open arms?  It's like welcoming a child molester or gang into your neighbourhood!

The striking workers say they want to return to work because they're concerned that the residents are not receiving adequate care from the replacement workers we brought in to ensure our quality of life was maintained.  If they really cared, they would not have walked to prove that we need them.  In fact, the only thing their walking did was prove to us that we could continue with satisfactory or better care from other workers with the same employment qualifications as they provided.  These SAIL employees are not so valuable or skilled that they cannot be replaced.  Such arrogance should not be rewarded!

I DO NOT want the SAIL employees in my home.  I would feel uncomfortable and unsafe with them having access to my home or in my home after my trust had been violated.  I know you would feel the same!

I am still shocked that such heinous behaviour is encouraged and applauded in our enlightened society!

Hopeful you will hear,

[name withheld for privacy and safety concerns]