TORONTO – Hospital professionals at 40 Ontario hospitals are preparing a major day of protest Feb. 13 if the Ontario Hospital Association does not return to the table with a central offer that substantially improves wages and working conditions.
OPSEU’s 5,000 hospital
professionals, who provide diagnostic, therapeutic and rehabilitative services, have announced that date for their next phase in a series of escalating job actions to address the severe shortages in their professions, which are already hurting patient care.
Leah Casselman, President of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, called on Premier Ernie Eves to get involved to head off the confrontation. "Premier, call your friends at the OHA and give them your assurance that the money is there to give us an acceptable central offer," she said.
"The OHA has had a year to fix the problem. Instead of giving us a strong central agreement for the whole province they have offered band-aid solutions, and in the meantime hospitals are trying to make side deals with our members," Casselman said.
Casselman said recruiting of staff by private clinics, by non-union hospitals, and by hospitals in U.S. border cities is making the crisis worse. “The Minister of Health crows about funding for diagnostic equipment. What good are the machines if there is no-one left to operate them or to interpret the results?”
Last fall, these professionals voted 91 per cent to authorize escalating action. After mediation failed in December, local Presidents set a date for a province-wide event. "Our bargaining team is ready and waiting for the OHA to come back to the table with a central offer that reflects the realities in our
professions," said Casselman.
"If not, the full resources of the union will be available in support of this action, and we will be calling upon our friends in the labour movement for added assistance."
The union says it will not put patients at risk.
"Our members are incredibly dedicated to their patients, " said OPSEU bargaining chair Aimee Axler, a laboratory technologist from Kingston. "But working conditions are so stressful due to staff shortages that we can no longer do our jobs properly. We need a much improved central contract now to keep our members
working in Ontario’s hospitals and to attract new people to our professions."
Central bargaining for OPSEU hospital professionals broke down in June. The central contract expired March 31.
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For further information:
Aimee Axler, Chair of Central Bargaining 613-329-2051 (cell)
David Cox: 416-443-8888 (ext 314) or cell 416-788-9197 or dcox@opseu.org
Randy Robinson: 416-448-7441 or cell 416-788-9134 or rrobinson@opseu.org
Katie FitzRandolph: 416-448-7440 or cell 416-788-9057 or kfitzrandolph@opseu.org
Note: Local contacts available. This action directly affects 5,000 members at 40 hospitals in the following communities:
Toronto
Barrie
Belleville/Trenton/Picton/Bancroft
Burlington
Cambridge
Chatham-Kent
Cobourg
Collingwood
Cornwall
Guelph
Hawkesbury
Huntsville
Ingersoll
Iroquois Falls/Cochrane
Kincardine/South Grey Bruce
Kingston
Lindsay
Little Current/Manitoulin
London
New Liskeard/Temiskaming
North Bay
Orangeville/Dufferin
Oshawa/ Durham Region
Owen Sound/North Grey Bruce
Peterborough
St. Catharines/Niagara
Sault Ste. Marie/Algoma
Stratford
Sturgeon Falls
Sudbury
Thunder Bay
