MEDIA ADVISORY: “We were there for patients in the pandemic,” say Sudbury hospital workers mobilizing tomorrow to fight wage cuts and concessions

Event Information

Begins: 29 July 2021 @ 11:30 AM
Location: Sudbury, ON

SUDBURY, ON –/COMMUNITYWIRE/– Hospital staff at Sudbury’s Health Sciences North (HSN) are joining thousands of front-line hospital workers across Ontario in speaking out about their dissatisfaction with how their hospital employers and Doug Ford’s provincial government are treating them.

Registered practical nurses, personal support workers, environmental cleaners, and other Sudbury hospital staff (who are members of CUPE 1623) will take in part in socially distanced rally tomorrow, July 29 11:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m. at the HSN Paris St. entrance.

They are among nearly 70,000 hospital workers across Ontario currently negotiating a new provincial contract. But after working the past 18 months at a hectic pace in a pandemic, these workers feel devalued by both the province and their hospital employers.

They deserve a fair contract say their unions, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and SEIU Healthcare but, they are instead, being “rewarded” by a wage cut under a provincial policy (Bill 124) that restricts them to a wage increase less than 1/3 of the rate of inflation. Bill 124 also impacts hospital workers’ ability to negotiate much-needed increases to mental health supports like psychotherapy and post-traumatic stress counselling.

At tomorrow’s Sudbury rally, hospital workers will ask for respect and better pandemic protections – safety measures, which will also benefit patients. In addition to getting Bill 124 repealed, they want the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) the umbrella group for hospital employers, to take several concessions, including language around seniority and retirement packages, off the table.

Earlier this week, hospital workers rallied at hospitals throughout Ontario’s northwest.  Many similar rally actions are scheduled across the province through the end of August.

CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE) and SEIU Healthcare began bargaining with the OHA last month and will return to the table in early September.

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For more information, please contact:

Stella Yeadon, CUPE Communications, 416-559-9300, syeadon@cupe.ca