FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 25, 2003
Talks break down for hospital workers
THUNDER BAY – As the days count down to the February opening of Thunder Bay’s new state-of-the-art Regional Health Sciences Centre, the hospital is nickel-and-diming the skilled trades people who will keep its technology running smoothly.
“This is a false economy,” said Ontario Public Service Employees Union President Leah Casselman, whose union represents the 27 maintenance trades workers at the hospital.
“Investing $200 million into a new hospital and ignoring the people who will maintain that investment is madness,” Casselman said. “Without appropriate technical support, the facility will slowly turn into an expensive and useless junkpile.”
The workers are looking for wage parity with Sudbury Regional Hospital, the sister hospital to the new Thunder Bay one in terms of being a teaching hospital for the new medical school at Lakehead University. The hospital is comparing them to staff at the much smaller hospitals in Kenora and Red Lake.
The current wage rate for licenced skilled tradespeople at the hospital is $21.04 an hour, a rate that has increased by only 2.2 per cent over the past five years. The hospital is offering $22 and the union is seeking $23.96, which is the going rate at the Sudbury hospital effective September. Equivalent staff at
Bowater in Thunder Bay make $29.71.
Negotiations have broken off and the union is seeking arbitration to resolve the contract dispute.
The workers include electricians, stationery engineers, carpenters, plumbers, painters, mechanics and maintenance workers.
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For further information:
www.opseu.org
Tom Wood (cell): 416-788-0706
John Watson: 807-344-5804
Katie FitzRandolph: 416-448-7440 or cell 416-788-9057 or kfitzrandolph@opseu.org
