THUNDER BAY – About two dozen health-care workers grabbed picket signs during Wednesday’s lunch hour and marched in solidarity in front of St. Joseph’s Hospital in search of a end to their contract impasse with the Ontario Hospital Association.
The workers, who number 75,000 province-wide and about 2,000 in Thunder Bay, have been without a contract since last October and are threatening to hold a strike vote as soon as May 4.
Union leadership is hopeful a trilateral meeting this week between the OHA, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, SEIU Healthcare and Unifor will produce progress on the contract front, while standing their ground and insisting they will not give up benefits for which they’ve previously bargained.
“We’re here to get a deal and we’re not going to arbitration,” said Unifor Local 229 president Kari Jefford, who helped organize the local picket line.
“And we’re not taking concessions and rollbacks to do so.”
Jefford said negotiations begin at the local level, but the OHA has refused to bargain for a settlement, and instead are looking for ways to cut costs.
That’s not acceptable to hospital workers, Jefford said.
“We couldn’t even get through the language part of it, and that’s been happening at every bargaining table through all of Ontario at every hospital,” she said.
“It really is telling us that they’re tying the hands of the employers and the hospitals we work for. I think some of them would love to have this agreement ratified and out of the way. But it seems like the message from the Ontario Hospital Association is not very good for the workers.”
Jefford added theirs is no obvious reason why the rollbacks are required and demanded the federal government not only provide more money to the province for health care, but also to insist where that money is spent.
While most health-care workers don’t have the right to strike as an essential service, Jefford said the legislation is out of date, created in a time when employers and unions were able to find a common middle ground.
“If it comes to having to create some job action, we’re going to do that,” she said. “Of course not at the safety of our patients, but at the end of the day, when you’re working very short with very few resources and they’re cutting services every single day just to maintain a zero budget, which is the law, our patients are already at risk.”
Union leaders are upset wage increases offered to nurses, electrical and support staff weren't also offered to their membership.
The next round of bargaining is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday in Toronto.
Union members last week wore stickers emblazoned with the slogan “Together for Respect.” Several also rallied on Wednesday outside Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.
