About 300 health care workers in Sudbury will walk off the job for a day to protest what they call poor working conditions and bad faith bargaining by the Ontario Hospital Association.

"Emergency services will be provided, but as far as anything else, we can't guarantee it," said David Cox, communications officer for the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU).

The day of action will be Feb. 13, when technicians, technologists and therapists from Sudbury Regional Hospital, Northeast Mental Health Centre and the Little Current Medical Health Centre, all OPSEU members, will picket their respective facilities to protest manpower shortages and the lack of a collective agreement.

The central contract, involving 40 Ontario hospitals, expired March 31. Contract talks broke down in June.

"They've gone almost a year now without a collective agreement," said Cox. "The hospitals left the tables in June. We've done everything we can to get them to recognize the shortages and get an agreement that can bring people into the professions and the hospitals will not make that move.

"We're trying to escalate the pressure on them."

Cox said OPSEU wants to put pressure on the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA), the body responsible for negotiating the central contract, because it has engaged in bad faith bargaining.

"A lot of the individual hospitals have been trying to make side deals with their specific members," said Cox. "Because of the way the bargaining is set up, that's actually bad faith bargaining."

OHA communications director Sandra Conley said that claim is false.

"I don't know about that, because we are engaged in the central bargaining system with 40 hospitals," she said. "So I'm not sure what they mean.

"But I can tell you that hospitals have not engaged in bad faith bargaining and we will be responding to their allegations at the labour board."

But even if the labour addresses those concerns, said Cox, that still won't take care of all the outstanding issues.

"The working conditions are terrible," said Cox. "The shortages are so bad people are working double shifts, they're getting called in after working a shift, they're getting called in the middle of the night. They're under a lot of stress, they're afraid they're making mistakes and all of that has to do with the shortages."

He said the shortages are a result of poor wage increases in the past.

"These folks got zero increases through most of the 1990s and they're not being paid enough," said Cox. "If you compare the technologists to the nurses, they used to be on a par and now they're 23 per cent behind."

He the salaries range from about $30,000 to $60,000, depending on the job.

Conley said the OHA did what it could to address OPSEU's concerns.

"We're set to go to binding arbitration now on March 7," said Conley. "From our perspective we tabled the best offer we could and it wasn't acceptable."

She wouldn't give details of the offer, but said it was comparable to what OHA has offered other unions.

"We've achieved settlements with all the other unions, except OPSEU," said Conley. "We tried to address the very real problem, which is that there are shortages ...

"Hospitals put together a package they thought could address the shortages by offering incentives to recruit and retain people."

Standard-Freeholder (Cornwall)
Thu 30 Jan 2003
Page: 3
Section: Local
Byline: Terri Saunders
Source: Standard-Freeholder

CORNWALL - A city hospital official doesn't believe local health services will be disrupted when workers hold a day of protest next month.

Jeanette Despatie, executive director of Hotel Dieu Hospital, said Wednesday she doesn't believe the action being planned for Feb. 13 will impact on patient care.

"Our local group has not caused any patient service disruptions in the past," said Despatie.

"We have not been notified, nor do I expect there will be any disruptions this time."

On Wednesday, members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) announced they will hold the day of protest as part of their ongoing battle for more money and better working conditions.

The union has more than 5,000 employees working in 40 hospitals across the province.

CONTRACTS EXPIRED

Their contract with the province expired 10 months ago.

"If wages and working conditions don't improve, people are going to continue to leave these professions, leave Ontario, or leave the public hospital system," said Leah Cassleman, president of OPSEU.

"As a result of this situation, and to protect patient care over the long term, we are going to take a dramatic step."

The workers are looking for a 23 per cent raise over two years -- about $50 million.

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

When bargaining broke off last June, the hospitals were offering a wage increase of about nine per cent. The union insists its members are exhausted by the demands placed on them, including being called from home to work overtime at night, and on their days off.

Last fall, the workers voted 91 per cent in favour of strike action.

"These members have had it," said Casselman.

"They're absolutely fed up."

An OPSEU spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

Edition: Final
Story Type: News
Length: 314 words