Feb 15, 2003  Collingwood - The Enterprise Bulletin Hospital workers stage illegal walkout     
 

Feb 15, 2003 Kingston - The Whig Standard Hospital workers facing penalties for strike
 

Feb 13, 2003 Linday Daily Post  Day of Action labeled as illegal

 

Feb 14, 2003 Durham Region This Week Hospital workers hit the street

Feb 14, 2003 Cambridge Reporter Protesters won't be disciplined

 

The Hamilton Spectator

Hospitals get central arbitration; OPSEU workers get concession

Sat 15 Feb 2003
Section: Canada & World
Source: The Canadian Press
 

Contract talks for Ontario's 40 hospitals and their frustrated employees will be consolidated into central arbitration, the two sides announced yesterday, one day after thousands of health-care workers held an illegal strike across the province.

The move is an apparent concession to demands by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, whose laboratory and X-ray technicians, therapists and other medical workers staged a "day of action" Thursday to demand higher pay and better working conditions.

Union president Leah Casselman said she was pleased with the move to have central arbitration instead of talks with each union local.

"They're certainly one step closer to having consistent wage rates across all the hospitals," Casselman said.

Under such a system, a technician in downtown Toronto could earn the same amount as one in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

Both parties will ask the board of arbitration to accept the terms of the agreement that has been reached.

The parties also agreed to a mediation with the board of arbitration on March 6, subject to the board's availability.

"We are optimistic that this agreement will result in a timely resolution that will be acceptable to both parties," Hilary Short of the Ontario Hospital Association said in a release.

Negotiators for the 5,000 workers, whose contract expired 10 months ago, say serious staff shortages and overwork have created a hospital crisis. They want a 23 per cent raise over two years -- about $50 million more in salaries.

They earn between $37,000 and $50,000 per year and say they need the steep increase to make up for years of wage freezes and to retain and attract staff.

Meanwhile, hospital officials were considering whether to punish workers who took part in the job action, which proceeded despite being ruled illegal by the Ontario Labour Relations Board.

According to that ruling, workers taking part in the illegal walkout could be disciplined or prosecuted and fined as much as $2,000 per day.

The union could face fines of up to $20,000 per day as a result of successful prosecution under the labour board ruling.

The OHA said it would be up to individual hospitals to decide whether or how to discipline employees who participated in the walkout.

"The hospitals involved are going to be talking together to see if there's some kind of consistent approach that they can all take in approaching discipline," said Sandra Conley of the OHA.

Casselman suggested yesterday the illegal job walkout played a role in pressuring management to consider the union's demands.

"It was a pretty impressive day (Thursday)," she said.

"I think probably (the move to central arbitration) was the culmination of all the work our members did over the last number of months."

 

Edition: Final
Story Type: News
Length: 450 words

The Kingston Whig-Standard

Hospital workers facing penalties for strike: But after one-day walkout, union reaches deal on central arbitration

Sat 15 Feb 2003
Page: 1 / Front
Section: Community
Byline: Sue Yanagisawa
Source: The Kingston Whig-Standard
 

In the wake of Thursday's "day of action" - which saw 98 of Kingston General Hospital's technicians and technologists book off work to picket their employer - the Ontario Hospitals Association and the union representing the hospital workers has reached an agreement on central arbitration.

"I'm very pleased to tell you, we have reached agreement and will have one arbitration for all 40 hospitals," said Aimee Axler, president of OPSEU

Local 444 at Kingston General and chairwoman of the OPSEU central bargaining team.

Not all of province's hospitals are involved in the dispute, which arises out of central bargaining that's been stalled since last June. Arbitration was scheduled to begin March 7.

The employees organized their walkout, however, to protest refusal by the OHA to arbitrate all 40 as a group. The hospitals association appealed to the Ontario Labour Relations Board to prevent the walkout and the board ruled Tuesday that it would be an illegal strike, entitling the hospitals to seek damages at arbitration.

Administrators at Kingston General, meanwhile, have begun to consider what penalties they might impose on employees who didn't work.

None of Hotel Dieu's 68 technicians or technologists booked off to participate in the protest.

"We're still thinking it through. I think we probably will take action," said Kingston General Hospital president and CEO Joe de Mora.

"I don't know what that action will be."

Employees who called in to book the day off could face discipline ranging from losses in pay to notes placed in their personnel files.

According to that ruling, workers taking part in the illegal walkout could be prosecuted and fined as much as $2,000 a day.

The union could face fines of up to $20,000 a day as a result of successful prosecution under the labour board ruling.

Axler is hoping the hospital will do nothing: "We should let what's past be past." She said she's hoping Kingston General will find mitigation in factors such as the two weeks' notice the union gave them, the union's maintenance of emergency staffing levels and the fact that all workers who booked off called in to let their supervisor know.

De Mora plans to talk to the OHA and seek the views of other hospital administrators on how to deal with the situation.

It's up to the individual hospitals how they respond, he said, and he estimated that his decision won't be made until around the middle of next week. When it is, he said he'll schedule a meeting with the executive of Local 444.

"I take this very, very seriously," de Mora said. "I don't lightly dismiss that this was an illegal action, with all due respect to what OPSEU is trying to do."

"This isn't all about relationships between hospitals and unions, it's also about safeguarding services for patients."

Axler doesn't disagree. In fact, she says her members' one-day walkout and their dispute with the OHA revolve around the issue of safeguarding services for patients.

The union says serious staff shortages and overwork have created a crisis that is putting patients at risk. It also says current wages are too low for hospitals to attract qualified people from the private sector.

"There's a role for the [provincial] government in this process," Axler said.

"It's time for Mr. [Ernie] Eves to ante up," she suggested. "There's a real problem here and it's time for Mr. Eves to fix it."

She added that "it's not enough for him to just put dollars into equipment."

The reality, says Axler, is that 80 per cent of the cost of health care is staff "and without the staff the equipment lies idle."

The reason for long waiting lists for MRIs is "there's no staff," she said. "We don't need private MRI clinics - we need more staff in hospitals."

Across the province, laboratory and X-ray technicians, therapists and other medical professionals represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union earn between $37,000 and $50,000 annually. The union is asking for a 23-per-cent pay increase for its 5,000 members across the board - about $50 million more in salaries. "That's a principle that the union believes strongly in," said Axler, "that it's the same work, no matter where you're doing it."

Axler said the technicians and technologists didn't see any increase in pay between 1993 and 1998, so if they get the increase they want, "over an 11- year period we'll have averaged 2.7 per cent per year," she said.

"No one's getting rich here. This isn't about getting rich. It's about keeping up."

Axler said it would have taken years to resolve the issues hospital by hospital, as originally planned. Mediation for all of them is now tentatively set to begin March 6 and continue through April 10.

Axler was on the line in Kingston with her local members Thursday and didn't take part in discussions with the OHA in Toronto Thursday night. She learned of the resolution early yesterday afternoon and immediately started phoning her members in their departments to give them the news.

"It's a Valentine's gift that none of them expected to get," she said.

Illustration:
• Photo: Michael Lea, The Whig-Standard / Officials at Kingston General Hospital are considering disciplining the workers who took part in an illegal strike Thursday
• Photo: (Joe) de Mora
 

Edition: Final
Story Type: News
Length: 851 words