Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare is provoking a labour
relations battle with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union
with the firing of a union steward today.
MAHC told OPSEU that a union steward had been fired
over her actions in a campaign to save lab services at the hospital.
The hospital failed to wait for an unfair labour practices hearing
with a Ministry of Labour representative scheduled for later this
month. A grievance hearing specific to the steward had also been
scheduled for June.
“The MAHC appears to belong to a different era where
employees can be bullied, where the spending of taxpayers dollars is
a secret, and where the board thinks it is above the wishes of the
community,” says OPSEU President Warren Smokey Thomas.
The firing follows on the heels of a hospital
announcement that community lab work will remain with the hospital
at least to March 2008. However, given a year’s notice is required
to get out of the community lab contract with Gamma Dynacare, it is
not clear whether notice has been given, or whether a decision to
give a year’s termination notice will take place at that time.
The hospital has also to reveal the contents of a
regional lab plan, which it claims to only want to release in a
face-to-face meeting with the union. However, the hospital has
failed to provide dates requested by the union in which such a
meeting can take place.
“It is our intention to get this steward her job
back and see that she is properly compensated for lost days of
work,” says Thomas. “MAHC is sending a clear message to skilled
health care professionals across the province – don’t come here. Is
it any wonder it has spent months searching for a pathologist?”
Lab technologists across the province are in short
supply. With the OPSEU steward fired, MAHC will face difficulties
keeping its present complement.
