THUNDER BAY – The union representing 65 striking Port Arthur Health Centre employees is taking the clinic’s management before the labour board, charging the employer of bargaining in bad faith.
Unifor Local 229, which represents the workers at the health centre who have been on the picket lines for nearly four months, has filed an unfair labour practice application with the Ontario Labour Relations Board.
Andy Savela, the union’s health care director, said management have declined to meet with the union on at least eight occasions, with the latest prompting the labour board filing.
“We question how it can be said that you’re not bargaining in bad faith when you simply refuse to meet,” Savela said on Friday.
The union filed the application earlier this week. While clinic management has up until Aug. 13 to provide a response, the labour board has scheduled a hearing on Aug. 16 in Toronto.
Savela said the union is hoping the labour board will force the health centre to the bargaining table.
“I do feel that we’re rather close, if the parties could just sit down and negotiate in good faith that there’s a settlement to be had,” Savela said. “But they’ve simply refused to meet with us, which obviously is frustrating.”
The employees, who work as appointment secretaries, medical aides and medical records personnel, walked off the job on April 9, with the labour dispute now extended beyond 100 days. Union officials have previously said low pay and the clinic’s prevalent use of casual employment with no guarantee of hours or job security are their primary issues.
“I know that a lot of them are looking for work elsewhere. We’ve had a few that we know who have found employment elsewhere,” Savela said.
“However, the majority of the workers there actually enjoy their jobs at the clinic and working with the patients. In their minds, they don’t feel they need to abandon their jobs and they feel they need fair compensation and a fair offer from their employer to go back to work and make the clinic as successful as possible.”
The health centre had forced a vote on its final offer, which the workers overwhelmingly rejected by 94 per cent.
Savela, a long-time union official who has been a part of a number of labour disputes, said this strike stands out.
“I’ve never experienced, in the years I’ve been doing this, an employer who simply just refuses to bargain, particularly when you’re in a strike position like this one that’s been ongoing for as long as it has,” Savela said.
Thunder Bay city council earlier this week urged both sides to get back to the bargaining table. The strike has also been discussed in the provincial legislature.
