“We Were There for Patients in the Pandemic, Don’t Betray Us,” Osler and Georgetown Hospital Staff Protesting Tuesday and Wednesday to Fight Wage Cuts and Concessions

BRAMPTON, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hospital staff at the William Osler Health System and the Georgetown Hospital are joining thousands of front-line hospital workers across Ontario this summer 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 hospital workers (who are members of CUPE 7811) will take part in four socially distanced rallies on:

Tuesday August 10, 2021
Georgetown Hospital 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., 1 Princess Anne Dr, Georgetown
Peel Memorial Center (William Osler)13:30 p.m. - 14:30 p.m. 20 Lynch Street, Brampton

And on:
Wednesday August 11
Etobicoke General Hospital 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., 101 Humber College Boulevard, Etobicoke
Brampton Civic Hospital (William Osler) 13:30 p.m. – 14:30 p.m., Peter Robertson Blvd and Velvet Grass Lane.

The William Osler and Georgetown staff 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 and betrayed 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.

CUPE National President Mark Hancock is the guest speaker at Wednesday’s rally at the Brampton Civic. Michael Hurley President of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE) will be speaking at all four rallies, where 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In addition to getting Bill 124 repealed, they want the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) the umbrella group for hospital employers, to take several concessions, including language around seniority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.

In July and early August, workers rallied at hospitals throughout Ontario’s northwest, northeast and east. Many similar rally actions are scheduled across the province through the end of August. A protest action is being planned for September 10 in Toronto.

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

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