Durham Region paramedics highlight ambulance shortages and call for real investment in paramedic services

WHITBY, ON – The union representing paramedics in Durham is calling on regional political leadership to join forces in calling for a greater investment in emergency health services. CUPE Local 1764, which represents about 320 paramedics in Durham Region, recently shared with Durham Region councillors a report that definitively shows the disparity between call volume…

CUPE alerts community to rushed March closure of Hamilton forensic pathology, calls for independent inquiry

HAMILTON, ON –The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 7800 has learned that Hamilton’s forensic pathology unit is closing hastily at the end of March, months earlier than the original proposed and controversial closure in July. The decision to end forensic autopsies at Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) is already riddled with “controversy, equivocations and contradictions…

Diverting bodies from Niagara down the QEW for autopsies in Toronto, “makes no sense”

HAMILTON, ON – The union representing staff in pathology at Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) is calling on the provincial government to reconsider a recent decision to divert pathology cases from Niagara to Toronto, by-passing Hamilton. The move to shuttle forensic autopsies from Niagara to Toronto, is the latest in a series of controversial and questionable…

Ottawa and Ottawa Valley ParaMed staff say, “enough of low wages, exploitation”, begin workplace actions today

OTTAWA, ON – More than 200 nurses, personal support workers (PSWs) and care dispatchers employed locally by ParaMed are among Ottawa’s and the Ottawa Valley’s lowest paid health care workers. But today (Monday, February 3, 2020) these predominantly female workers, represented by the Canadian Union of Public of Employees (CUPE) begin workplace actions to increase…

NDP health critic and OHC comment on closure of North Bay hospital addiction treatment beds Monday, February 3

NORTH BAY, ON – Following a review of recently made available reports, Natalie Mehra Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) director, Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas opposition health critic and Michael Hurley president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE), will hold a media conference in North Bay on Monday, February 3 (2020) at 10 a.m.…

At times of viral global outbreaks like the Coronavirus, Ontario’s overcrowded, underfunded hospitals severely disadvantaged

TORONTO, ON – Ontario’s overcrowded, understaffed and underfunded hospitals are already challenged under the strain of a growing and aging population and as a result they are “severely disadvantaged at times of viral global outbreaks, like the Coronavirus now spread to North America from China,” says Michael Hurley the president of the Ontario Council of…