Contemporary Challenges to Caring Labour and Time-Honoured Transformative Tools: Workplace Bullying and Theatre of the Oppressed

One manifestation of the 'new managerialism' in the Canadian health care system is the increase in workplace bullying. An occupational group especially susceptible to workplace bullying is Continuing Care Assistants (CCAs) who provide personal care to long-term care home residents and individuals in their own homes in Saskatchewan. These foot soldiers of end-of-life care have no professional society or regulatory agency to advocate for their occupational status and the social value of the work they perform. The paper argues that workplace bullying cannot be understood unless it is related to the social structure from which it derives. One underlying cause of bullying among CCAs is the reorganization of their work under current health care reforms. Potential solutions to workplace bullying must start with transformative processes rooted in an understanding of these larger contextual forces.