Rally vows to fight on despite layoffs at Hamilton St. Joseph’s Healthcare

August 2, 2007 About 70 activists rallied August 1 outside Hamilton’s St. Joseph’s Healthcare while inside the hospital issued layoff notices to staff who work at three lab collection sites.

St. Joseph’s is closing the last three public lab collection facilities in the community, leaving the door open to the private sector to replace them.

The hospital thumbed their nose at the union by calling in staff to give them their layoff notices at exactly the same time as the rally across the street.

OPSEU 1st Vice-President Patty Rout spoke about the closures as part of an overall privatization agenda.

“The problem is, privatization is not a modern idea. Not by any stretch,” said Rout. “Before 1966 our health system was in private hands. You couldn’t go to the hospital or see a doctor without thinking about what it would cost.”

With the privatization of the three lab sites, many specialized tests will come with a price tag to the patient that didn’t exist while the hospital was operating the centers.

“It’s all part of a slow creeping privatization,” said Rout. “When the public says no, government says, well maybe just a little bit – and then a bit more. And before you know it, the whole system is privatized.”

Betty Palmieri, President of OPSEU Local 206, said the fight is not over, despite the layoffs.

Local 206 Vice-president Ed Zacharewski said the endangered labs have received tremendous support from the community, including more than 12,000 signatures on petitions asking the hospital to reverse the decision.

Hamilton East MPP Andrea Horwath said she wrote Dalton McGuinty, demanding he give the hospital enough money to keep the lab collection sites open and in public hands. She said she received a form letter in reply. “His answer is inside there today, where workers are receiving their pink slips.”

City Counsellor Terry Whitehead, Hamilton federal MPs David Christopherson and Chris Charlton also spoke.