Leah Casselman's Speech
Jan 29, 2003

Good morning and welcome:

I’m here to speak to you today about another crisis in health care. I have with me Aimee Axler, chair of the OPSEU Hospital Professionals Central bargaining team, Yves Shank, Vice-chair of the team, and Patty Rout, chair of our hospital professionals division.

I’d also like to introduce the rest of the bargaining team: Leslie Sanders, Jim O’Leary, Robby Hersh and David Hancock.

I know you have all heard about the shortages in the Health Care system, but most people just assume its nurses and doctors.

The province has been running an expensive TV ad campaign that says it has solved the staffing shortages in our hospitals. We’re here to tell the people of Ontario that the government has not solved the crisis in the hospitals.

In fact, the crisis is getting worse.

There is a whole group of people in our hospitals, the often-invisible professionals that are an essential part of our system.

These professionals, including laboratory and x-ray technologists, physio and occupational therapists, pharmacists, MRI and CT scan technologists, and others, who face perhaps the most severe shortages. They have been without a central contract for almost a year.

These professionals are so underpaid and so overloaded with work, that people are leaving and no-one is coming in to take their place.

Over the past two days, we’ve released a survey of our 12,000 members which states that 78 per cent of these professionals feel that shortages are hurting patient care.

But, in spite of this, the hospitals are still telling our members they aren’t worth what other health professionals are worth.

The Ontario Hospital Association and the hospitals know about these shortages.

What did they do?

They stopped negotiating, and have made it very difficult for us to get a central agreement process at all. We’ve had central bargaining in the hospitals for more than 25 years.

At the same time, many hospitals have tried to make side-deals with our members in specific hospitals including Burlington, London, Timmins and Thunder Bay.

We know, and the OHA knows, that only a great central contract will begin to solve the problem, by keeping people on the job and attracting new people into our professions.

As I said, the OHA knows about the problem, and they’ve had nearly a year since the start of bargaining to fix it.

Our members took a vote in the fall. They voted 91 per cent in favour of doing whatever it takes to get a great central agreement. We know strikes are illegal in the hospital sector. So far we haven’t done anything illegal, but we’ve been out there doing as much as we can without crossing that line. The OHA and the hospitals have taken notice of this, but they still haven’t come up with what we need.

What have our members done so far? They’ve lobbied, they’ve demonstrated, they’ve taken their coffee breaks and lunch breaks, and they’ve worn red. Across Ontario, these members have been active in support of their bargaining team.

The improvements we are seeking at the table are directly related to patient care in our public hospitals. And they’re also about respect for our professionals and the service they provide.

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. There is already poaching going on, between hospitals, from private clinics, from other provinces, and from hospitals in US border cities.

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

The OHA has had almost a year to deal with this problem. They are now down to the final two weeks.

I’m here to announce OPSEU’s first Hospital Emergency Day of Action.

Our members are holding a day of protest at 40 hospitals across the province on February 13.

This will happen unless the OHA comes back to the table with a substantially improved offer that our bargaining team can take back to the members for ratification.

We are giving the OHA and the hospitals two weeks to either come up with the improvements we need or be prepared to look at picket lines outside hospitals in London, Sudbury, Kingston, Oshawa, Thunder Bay, Orangeville, North Bay…..and other Ontario cities and towns.

We’re going to be asking our entire union to be on alert that day. And we are going to be asking our partners in the labour movement to be out in solidarity as well. Our union is providing full support for these members.

We did not want to go down this road. Our members are doing this because we care about the patients. We will not put patients at further risk. Patient care is already being affected too much by the staff shortages and delays.

What we want is one centrally negotiated contract for the whole province, not a series of piecemeal or band-aid solutions. We want an offer on central issues that we can take back to our members to ratify.

These members will have the full support of our union for this action. This means the financial resources and the staff of OPSEU will be fully behind these members.

To Premier Eves, I say to you, you need to get involved now and tell the hospitals that the money is there to give our members an acceptable central offer.

To the OHA and the hospitals, we’re here and we’re ready to bargain anytime for a central agreement that reflects the realities in these professions.