Tag Archives: OPSEU Hospital Professionals

Video: Hospital professionals target Ontario PC pledge to undermine job security

Hospital professionals represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union have targeted the Ontario PC pledge to undermine job security through competitions for jobs public sector workers already have.

OPSEU’s Hospital Professional Division has posted a YouTube video showing the Tory platform for what it is – a terrible step backwards in worker’s rights.

“Increasingly workers are finding out they are being left out of the economic recovery,” says OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas. “Instead of addressing the issue of low wages and insecure employment, it appears that PC leader Tim Hudak is threatening to make the situation much worse.”

Substituting modern health care professionals for displaced farm workers from the dirty thirties, the video reminds viewers of what can happen when government places the interests of Bay Street ahead of Main Street.

“I think most Ontarians oppose the idea of their government deliberately creating a low wage economy in this province,” says Thomas. “By attacking job security and wages in the public sector, they are attacking all workers who are struggling to maintain their standard of living.”

Adjusted for inflation, wages for the middle class have remained stagnant for close to 30 years while the top 20 per cent of Canadians have made considerable gains. Canada’s income gap between rich and poor is among the fastest growing in the developed world.

The video was shot in Port Perry in June.

To view the video, click on the window below.

Contract award issued for Hospital Professionals

TORONTO – Arbitrator William Kaplan has issued an arbitration award for a new collective agreement covering 9,000 hospital professionals employed in 46 hospitals across Ontario.

Under the provisions of the award, which will be in effect from April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2014, these employees will receive lump sum payments for the first two years, and an across-the-board wage increase of 2.75 per cent in the third year of the contract. The new contract also provides for early retirement benefits for employees aged 57-65, enhanced discrimination and harassment language, and a minor improvement to bereavement leave. The Hospitals’ proposed rollback of early retirement and voluntary exit incentives was rejected by the Arbitrator.

OPSEU Hospital Professionals Bargaining Team Chair Sandi Blancher said that this award does not meet the expectations of the bargaining team or the members.

“We knew this round would be difficult ever since the government’s announcement in March 2010 that no funding would be provided for compensation increases to hospital workers,” Blancher said. “This interference in our bargaining made it impossible to achieve a satisfactory outcome. What makes this even harder to accept is that other public sector workers, as well as hospital executives, have achieved better results. Despite this, we are happy to have some stability for the next three years and the gains we have made will benefit our members for many years to come.”

OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas said that he is proud of the work the bargaining team did both at the table and in preparing for the arbitration.

“Ontario’s Hospital Professionals perform vital services and are an integral part of the Province’s health care system,” Thomas said. “Without the work of these members, our doctors are only guessing. We hope that after this contract expires, the hospitals will come back to the bargaining table with a renewed vision that fully recognizes the importance of these members, and how essential they are to a safe and healthy Ontario.”

The 9,000 members affected by this award include classifications such as Audiologists, Speech Language Pathologists, Dietitians, Occupational Therapists, Respiratory Therapists, Physiotherapists, Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians, Medical Radiation Technologists, Biomedical Technologists, Psychologists, Lab Technologists and Lab Technicians.