TORONTO — Citing ongoing labour disputes in Thunder Bay and Owen Sound, the presidents of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union and Unifor called on Premier Doug Ford on Monday to crack down on what they referred to as "bad boss" doctors.
OPSEU head Warren (Smokey) Thomas and Unifor national president Jerry Dias held a joint news conference at Queen's Park to raise the profile of the lengthy strikes at the Port Arthur Health Centre and the Owen Sound Family Health Organization.
The two leaders said Premier Ford should tell the province's doctors that if they want a fee increase, they need to start treating their own workers better.
Referring to the three-month-old strike by 65 female staff at the Port Arthur Health Centre, Dias repeated a description of the two sides that he used during a rally earlier this month in Thunder Bay. "This is a case of the needy and the greedy, with millionaire doctors paying the health care workers they employ just over minimum wage. It's disgraceful that...there are 30 year employees who are making $14.71 an hour," he said.
Health centre employee Lori Salmi of Unifor Local 229 said some workers have put in full-time hours for as long as 15 years, but "are still classified as casual workers so the clinic doesn't have to provide them with benefits. We're asking for a living wage and basic respect."
With respect to the Owen Sound situation, where a walkout started on May 22, Thomas accused doctors of attacking members of their community "with high-priced Toronto lawyers, high-priced security, and low-blows on social media."
The union leaders said Ontario doctors are demanding a fee increase totalling 15 per cent by 2021 while front-line health care workers at the two doctor-owned clinics struggle with low pay, high turnover and precarious working conditions.
They called the two disputes "a major test of Doug Ford's true commitment to the little guy."
