Union calls on MPP Fedeli to 'advocate'
Author of the article: Jennifer Hamilton-McCharles
Publishing date: Aug 23, 2021
Michael Hurley, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees' Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, spoke to local media, Monday morning, outside the North Bay Regional Health Centre about upcoming bargaining. Jennifer Hamilton-McCharles/The Nugget
One of the biggest unions in the province is calling on Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli to intervene on behalf of the front-line workers at the North Bay Regional Health Centre to stop wages and working
Michael Hurley, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees’ Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE), and OCHU Northeastern Ontario Area 6 vice-president David Tremblay held a press conference outside the North Bay Regional Health Centre Monday morning to highlight the situation.
“We’re reluctantly here to talk about the bargaining situation for the staff at North Bay Regional Health Centre and hospital workers across Ontario,” Hurley told local media.
“There’s a disconnect with what the government says about these workers and how they treat them.”
He said CUPE met with the Ontario Hospital Association back in June to start the bargaining process.
“There was not one single word of a thank you for stepping up (during this pandemic). Instead, there was 17 pages of concessions threatening their job security rights and posting rights.”
Tremblay echoed the message that everyone in health care stepped up and did their part to help keep their communities safe.
“The public and province gave us accolades during the pandemic calling us heroes. However, it came as a shock to us that the (Premier Doug) Ford government passed legislation that for the first three years of our contract, which expires in September, our wage increases will be limited to one per cent (per year),” he said.
“According to Statistics Canada, from July (2020) to July (2021) the rate of inflation is 4.1 per cent, which means we will have a 3.1 per cent decrease in wages. That makes all the thank yous from the provincial government dishonest.”
CUPE is praising the province for increasing the hourly wage for personal support workers, but argues increases should be across the board.
Hurley said there also is concern about the difficulty nurses had obtaining N95 masks and superior respirators.
“There are many struggling workers in the hospital with anxiety, addiction, PTSD, depression, which have been worsened by the environment they’re working in. We’re prevented from bargaining any access to psychological counselling or any supports. We don’t have any and we will not be able to bargain any. And that’s not fair,” he said.
“The North Bay community has a very influential member of cabinet. Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli chairs cabinet and he’s in a good position to be advocates for these people. And we’re asking him to do that.”
Fedeli was unavailable for comment as he is away on vacation this week, according to his spokeswoman Rebecca Bozzato.
“Bill 124 is designed to protect public sector jobs and vital front-line services, which are essential in our fight against COVID-19. This is a fair, consistent and time-limited approach that will enable us to protect front-line jobs and workers,” a statement from Treasury Board president Prabmeet Sarkaria’s office said.
“It is inaccurate to suggest that Bill 124 caps wages at one per cent annually. Under this legislation, Ontario’s public sector employees will still be able to receive salary increases for seniority, performance, or increased qualifications as they do currently. As we continue to respond to the evolving COVID-19 situation here in Ontario, our government remains committed to working with our sector partners to support our front-line health-care workers and ensure the health and well-being of Ontarians.”
Hurley said hospital workers will head to Toronto Sept. 10 to provide a “gentle” push before the three weeks of bargaining and mediation. A rally also is being planned for the fall in North Bay.
“If unsuccessful, we’ll come back and talk about giving them a firmer push. We’re certainly hoping there will be a recognition from the Ford government and hospitals this is not a fitting fair way to recognize health-care workers during the pandemic,” he said.
Hurley said while CUPE is trying to negotiate a contract, “large” numbers of people are leaving the nursing profession.
“They can’t take it anymore,” he said.
“We already had the fewest staff working in our hospitals, and the second fewest in long-term care, of any province in the country. When you start to take large groups of workers away like this, the impact on workloads and quality of care is huge.”
Hurley said hospitals are competing for employees who are now making changes and “quality of life calculations.
“People are increasingly aware if you’re an RPN or RN and you work for an agency hire, you don’t have to work nights, weekends or evenings. When you give PSWs $3 in long-term care and $2 in hospitals, you have others who are doing nursing care. They (nurses) say they went to school two or four years and yet there’s no recognition for them. It’s a piecemeal way to deal with labour force problems.”
CUPE represents more than 600 employees at North Bay Regional Health Centre.
Hurley said there are several hospital proposals that have made CUPE “very concerned about privatizing jobs,” such as cleaning positions.
Hospital Union pushing for more respect for hospital workers
'This is totally, totally about respect'
By: Chris Dawson
(L to R) David Tremblay, Area 6 Vice President with OCHU based out of Sudbury and Michael Hurley, President of OCHU speak to the media Monday morning. Photo by Chris Dawson/BayToday.
Michael Hurley says it's all a matter of respect.
"This is totally, totally about respect," said Hurley, President of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE).
Hurley says after working the past 18 months at a hectic pace in the pandemic, hospital workers feel devalued and betrayed by both the province and their hospital employers including here in North Bay.
"It is about respect and dignity and it isn't that people believe they should be entitled but it is that they feel that there is this incredible disconnect between what the government says on one hand when they say, 'we value your work and thank you so much, you are heroes,' and then on the other hand how they have set up this group to be treated," said Hurley.
"They have set themselves up to have their wages effectively reduced and they have set them up with respect to the hospitals to have their basic working conditions eroded. That makes people feel profoundly disrespected and hurt. I think hurt would be the best."
Hurley, along with David Tremblay, Area 6 Vice President with OCHU based out of Sudbury, held a media event at the entrance to the North Bay Regional Health Centre Monday morning to voice their displeasure over wage increases which they say just do not add up.
Hurley believes the government is rewarding them with a cut to real wages under provincial legislation (Bill 124) that restricts them to a wage increase less than 1/3 of the rate of inflation, which is running at over four per cent in Ontario
He says the province has also hampered hospital workers’ ability to negotiate much-needed increases to mental health supports like post-traumatic stress counselling.
“We are asking Mr. Fedeli to intervene and do what’s right here,” said Hurley, about Nipissing's MPP stepping in.
“North Bay hospital workers have held the line for patients and the people of Nipissing. They sacrificed to do that, and they were proud and grateful to be able to help. They did not expect a reward. But a cut to their modest real wages and the gutting of their contracts is not acceptable. We hope that the provincial government will walk back from its one per cent wage cap, as the British government did in July, in acknowledgement of the pandemic effort.
A rally in North Bay is planned for late September.
One of the biggest unions in the province is calling on Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli to intervene on behalf of the front-line workers at the North Bay Regional Health Centre to stop wages and working
Michael Hurley, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees’ Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE), and OCHU Northeastern Ontario Area 6 vice-president David Tremblay held a press conference outside the North Bay Regional Health Centre Monday morning to highlight the situation.
“We’re reluctantly here to talk about the bargaining situation for the staff at North Bay Regional Health Centre and hospital workers across Ontario,” Hurley told local media.
“There’s a disconnect with what the government says about these workers and how they treat them.”
He said CUPE met with the Ontario Hospital Association back in June to start the bargaining process.
“There was not one single word of a thank you for stepping up (during this pandemic). Instead, there was 17 pages of concessions threatening their job security rights and posting rights.”
Tremblay echoed the message that everyone in health care stepped up and did their part to help keep their communities safe.
“The public and province gave us accolades during the pandemic calling us heroes. However, it came as a shock to us that the (Premier Doug) Ford government passed legislation that for the first three years of our contract, which expires in September, our wage increases will be limited to one per cent (per year),” he said.
“According to Statistics Canada, from July (2020) to July (2021) the rate of inflation is 4.1 per cent, which means we will have a 3.1 per cent decrease in wages. That makes all the thank yous from the provincial government dishonest.”
CUPE is praising the province for increasing the hourly wage for personal support workers, but argues increases should be across the board.
Hurley said there also is concern about the difficulty nurses had obtaining N95 masks and superior respirators.
“There are many struggling workers in the hospital with anxiety, addiction, PTSD, depression, which have been worsened by the environment they’re working in. We’re prevented from bargaining any access to psychological counselling or any supports. We don’t have any and we will not be able to bargain any. And that’s not fair,” he said.
“The North Bay community has a very influential member of cabinet. Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli chairs cabinet and he’s in a good position to be advocates for these people. And we’re asking him to do that.”
Fedeli was unavailable for comment as he is away on vacation this week, according to his spokeswoman Rebecca Bozzato.
“Bill 124 is designed to protect public sector jobs and vital front-line services, which are essential in our fight against COVID-19. This is a fair, consistent and time-limited approach that will enable us to protect front-line jobs and workers,” a statement from Treasury Board president Prabmeet Sarkaria’s office said.
“It is inaccurate to suggest that Bill 124 caps wages at one per cent annually. Under this legislation, Ontario’s public sector employees will still be able to receive salary increases for seniority, performance, or increased qualifications as they do currently. As we continue to respond to the evolving COVID-19 situation here in Ontario, our government remains committed to working with our sector partners to support our front-line health-care workers and ensure the health and well-being of Ontarians.”
Hurley said hospital workers will head to Toronto Sept. 10 to provide a “gentle” push before the three weeks of bargaining and mediation. A rally also is being planned for the fall in North Bay.
“If unsuccessful, we’ll come back and talk about giving them a firmer push. We’re certainly hoping there will be a recognition from the Ford government and hospitals this is not a fitting fair way to recognize health-care workers during the pandemic,” he said.
Hurley said while CUPE is trying to negotiate a contract, “large” numbers of people are leaving the nursing profession.
“They can’t take it anymore,” he said.
“We already had the fewest staff working in our hospitals, and the second fewest in long-term care, of any province in the country. When you start to take large groups of workers away like this, the impact on workloads and quality of care is huge.”
Hurley said hospitals are competing for employees who are now making changes and “quality of life calculations.
“People are increasingly aware if you’re an RPN or RN and you work for an agency hire, you don’t have to work nights, weekends or evenings. When you give PSWs $3 in long-term care and $2 in hospitals, you have others who are doing nursing care. They (nurses) say they went to school two or four years and yet there’s no recognition for them. It’s a piecemeal way to deal with labour force problems.”
CUPE represents more than 600 employees at North Bay Regional Health Centre.
Hurley said there are several hospital proposals that have made CUPE “very concerned about privatizing jobs,” such as cleaning positions.
Hospital Union pushing for more respect for hospital workers
'This is totally, totally about respect'
By: Chris Dawson
(L to R) David Tremblay, Area 6 Vice President with OCHU based out of Sudbury and Michael Hurley, President of OCHU speak to the media Monday morning. Photo by Chris Dawson/BayToday.
Michael Hurley says it's all a matter of respect.
"This is totally, totally about respect," said Hurley, President of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE).
Hurley says after working the past 18 months at a hectic pace in the pandemic, hospital workers feel devalued and betrayed by both the province and their hospital employers including here in North Bay.
"It is about respect and dignity and it isn't that people believe they should be entitled but it is that they feel that there is this incredible disconnect between what the government says on one hand when they say, 'we value your work and thank you so much, you are heroes,' and then on the other hand how they have set up this group to be treated," said Hurley.
"They have set themselves up to have their wages effectively reduced and they have set them up with respect to the hospitals to have their basic working conditions eroded. That makes people feel profoundly disrespected and hurt. I think hurt would be the best."
Hurley, along with David Tremblay, Area 6 Vice President with OCHU based out of Sudbury, held a media event at the entrance to the North Bay Regional Health Centre Monday morning to voice their displeasure over wage increases which they say just do not add up.
Hurley believes the government is rewarding them with a cut to real wages under provincial legislation (Bill 124) that restricts them to a wage increase less than 1/3 of the rate of inflation, which is running at over four per cent in Ontario
He says the province has also hampered hospital workers’ ability to negotiate much-needed increases to mental health supports like post-traumatic stress counselling.
“We are asking Mr. Fedeli to intervene and do what’s right here,” said Hurley, about Nipissing's MPP stepping in.
“North Bay hospital workers have held the line for patients and the people of Nipissing. They sacrificed to do that, and they were proud and grateful to be able to help. They did not expect a reward. But a cut to their modest real wages and the gutting of their contracts is not acceptable. We hope that the provincial government will walk back from its one per cent wage cap, as the British government did in July, in acknowledgement of the pandemic effort.
A rally in North Bay is planned for late September.
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