Previous Information:
CUPE frontline public health workers and Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) nurses do life-saving work for the residents of Belleville, Quinte West, and Hastings and Prince Edward counties.
The demands on Hastings Prince Edward Public Health workers have never been greater, as they help protect the communities from COVID-19, flu, STDs, rabies, foodborne illnesses like E. coli, dirty water, effects of tobacco smoke, cancer, etc.
But as workloads increase, funding for public health hasn’t kept up. Frontline workers fear that services will suffer, even as they themselves struggle to make ends meet in a time of record inflation.
As of Friday, September 22, CUPE Local 3314 public health workers are on strike. They are fighting to protect public health services and to make sure their wages come a bit closer to meeting the rising cost of living. These 70 CUPE members joined 50 ONA Local 31 members – nurses who had already withdrawn their labour for five weeks.
Help them all win a fair deal for workers and residents: send a message to the medical officer of health/CEO, board of health, local mayors and councillors, and premier Doug Ford.
This petition email message will be sent when you fill in your info. below and press ‘send’.
Subject: Get back to the table now – Accept CUPE and ONA workers’ proposals
Mayors Jan O’Neill, Kimberly Carson, Neil Ellis, and Jim Harrison; Councillors John Hirsch, Kate MacNaughton, Michael Kotsovos, David McCue, Sean Kelly, Garnet Thompson, and Paul Carr; Drs. Ethan Toumishey, Jeffrey Allin, and Craig Ervine; and Premier Doug Ford:
I don’t want you to cut corners on the vital public safety services and care provided by CUPE Local 3314 public health workers and ONA Local 31 nurses. Our communities’ health depends on the vital work they do.
Stop trying to download the cost of vital public safety work onto the backs of Hastings Prince Edward Public Health frontline workers and nurses.
These workers are just asking for a modest pay increase and some improvements to benefits. Their proposals are completely reasonable, necessary, and affordable – especially given high inflation that’s driving up costs for all workers and devaluing everyone’s wages.
The province and Hastings Prince Edward Public Health managers have the resources to accept the workers’ bargaining proposals.
The Ontario government has underspent on health care by $1.7 billion in the last fiscal year alone.
Show your employees some respect where it counts!
Get back to the bargaining table today with a new mandate to accept the workers’ proposals and sufficiently fund our public health.
Failing to do so will cost you votes and, more importantly, continue to cause unnecessary harm to some of the most vulnerable people in our communities who rely on public health services.
