Hospital Emergency Day of Action Press Conference

Speaking notes for Leah Casselman
Feb. 12, 2003 3:00 p.m.

Good afternoon and thank you for trekking up to Lesmill on a blustery February Day.

What I want to do today is put our Hospital Emergency Day of Action – and the Ontario Labour Relations Board ruling – into context.

First: There really IS an emergency in our hospitals.

They operate short-handed routinely.

Staff shortages and an ever-increasing workload are putting patients at risk.

We asked Viewpoints Research to survey 608 of our hospital members in November, and the vast majority of respondents (78 per cent) believe that staff shortages are hurting patient care.

Shortages of these hospital professionals are as critical as are shortages of doctors and nurses.

Without their work, doctors are only guessing at diagnoses. Our members are essential for patient recovery. These disciplines are vital to our health care system and they are consistently ignored and undervalued.

One in five respondents to our survey said they were making too many mistakes because of staff shortages and difficult working conditions. One in five was aware of at least one instance in the previous six months where a patient’s condition had worsened because staff were unable to provide test results or care in a timely manner.

Overwhelmingly (92.8 per cent), they said their workload had increased but staffing levels had remained the same or declined in recent years. Almost 90 per cent said their workload had increased in the past year.

The extra work is reflected in being expected to work faster (82 per cent), being responsible for more patients (78 per cent), covering for absent co-workers more frequently (78 per cent), and performing more complex tests and procedures (63 per cent).

They also reported that more tests are being ordered (65 per cent) and patients require more care (77 per cent). More than two thirds feel rushed at work “usually or often” because of staff shortages. Another 23 per cent feel rushed sometimes.

As a result of these work pressures, almost 60 per cent regularly go to work when they are sick, and another 22 per cent work sick sometimes. More than 40 per cent skip meals, at least sometimes, to stay on top of their work in a normal week, and 16 per cent do so regularly.

Nearly half of respondents feel patients are waiting longer for test results than they were three years ago.

The hospital professionals blame inadequate pay (79 per cent) and a lack of serious effort on the part of hospitals to hire staff (68 per cent) for the staff shortages. They also said not enough students training for these positions and the lack of full-time work (both 68 per cent) are key reasons why hospitals are having trouble filling vacancies.

Despite the problems, more than 75 per cent of the hospital professionals say that although they are stressed at work and are not being adequately supported by their employers, they still “go the extra mile” because they care about their patients.

Second: There is a solution to this.

The solution is a fair contract.

Certain hospital professionals, notably lab technologists, used to have wage parity with nurses, until about 10 years ago when the nurses got a very large increase because there was a shortage of nurses.

We’re not trying to take anything away from nurses, but even though members of the hospital professionals group have equivalent training and expertise, their wages are nearly 25 per cent lower. This makes it hard to attract people to train for the positions, and it makes it hard for hospitals to attract and retain staff.

For stability in Ontario, we need a single central agreement with the hospitals in central bargaining. The Ontario Nurses Association bargains with the hospitals this way. And until this year, so did we.

However, this year, the OHA has thrown every roadblock it can in the way of resolving a central agreement. It has restricted our ability to bring comparative evidence forward at arbitration, and it has vetoed dealing with outstanding issues in a single central arbitration. We are headed for an expensive series of individual arbitrations, which threaten to produce a series of varied collective agreements. This will encourage hospitals to poach staff from each other and will interfere with employment stability.

We proposed the solution on Monday: A single unfettered arbitration for all hospitals in central bargaining. We have so far had no response from the OHA.

However ,individual hospitals think it is a good idea. Several hospitals have volunteered to be bound by the outcome of the first six arbitrations – so far the only ones scheduled for 40 hospitals.

And today the London Health Sciences Centre, one of the largest hospitals in the province, has told us that it has advised the OHA, and I quote, that “a single unrestricted arbitration at all 40 OPSEU bargaining units would be acceptable from our perspective.”

So, there is a problem, and there is a solution.

But what has the OHA done?

The OHA decided to deal with this problem by going to the Ontario Labour Relations Board and buying itself a hammer.

The hammer it got – the ruling late yesterday from the OLRB – allows hospitals to go after our members – hospital professionals – who are trying to draw attention to the problem and to solve it.

This is ludicrous.

And that is why we have taken the OLRB’s order to judicial review.

In an application filed today, we are asking the court to quash and set aside the order, and to declare that the sections of the Hospital Labour Disputes Arbitration Act that prohibit picketing violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We are calling for an expedited hearing on this, with costs.

We claim that the board decision yesterday erred in law and exceeded the board’s jurisdiction, as there was no sufficient evidence upon which to base the decision.

We claim the board erred in law in applying HLDAA to prohibit picketing. We do not want this punitive order to remain as a precedent for any future actions.

We want to be realistic and optimistic.

The OHA’s campaign of vengeance against hospital workers won’t ease staff shortages. Firing and suspending staff when you don’t have enough and the schools can’t train them fast enough is cutting off your nose to spite your face.

We remain committed to our fight for a fair arbitrated central contract for all our members in the 40 hospitals in central bargaining. We will support our members completely in that fight.

…

The OHA may have bought its hammer at the OLRB, but we too have a hammer.

It’s the hammer of justice, its the hammer of freedom, it’s the hammer of love between my brothers and my sisters all over this union. It’s a hammer that has been used in many other fights for union and social justice.

It’s forged from solidarity and commitment, not from process and argument. And in the long term, it will prevail.

…

However, I am not here to make a war speech. Every negotiation ends, or should end, with a settlement.

No matter how bitter and angry the campaign, every settlement ultimately takes place inside a zone of peace where both sides agree to work together.

I know you are going to ask me if our Day of Action is going ahead tomorrow. I know you will be frustrated when I do not answer that question.

But I’m not answering because I am trying to create that zone of peace where a settlement can happen. At this stage, threats are not productive.

I know it’s not exciting news, but the purpose of our campaign is not to make news, it’s to improve Ontario hospital care by supporting the people who provide it.