Worker protections have “absolutely without question, taken a step back” under Ford’s leadership, CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn told PressProgress. “Not only are they systematically negatively impacting and trying to trample on the rights of workers, but then they try to convince people that they’re doing the opposite,” Hahn said. “So we have double the…
Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford is proclaiming himself the right pick for working class Ontarians, sometimes even assembling hard hat-wearing workers behind him at media events. It’s a novelty story that’s getting some attention. Working class Ontarians deserve media attention. Front-line workers kept Ontario going. Then they got walloped with job loss, wage cuts, COVID-19…
Privatization of home care is a hot-button topic as Ontario moves toward the June 2nd election. Premier Doug Ford’s government has bandied the idea about wanting to bring back a competitive bidding model that started the “systematic privatization” of home care in 1996 under Mike Harris’ leadership. Under the privatization model, for-profit Home and Community…
Unionized health care workers in Sudbury shouted and hollered their disapproval of Doug Ford’s government and Bill 124 at a public rally near Health Sciences North on Tuesday. The event was organized by OCHU (Ontario Council of Hospital Unions) and CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) and was attended by several Health Sciences North employees…
Nurses and hospital staff in Sudbury who are upset with limits put in place on salary increases held a rally Tuesday afternoon in front of Health Sciences North. Nurses at Health Sciences North joined other health care workers and union leaders to voice their concerns about Bill 124, which was introduced by the Ford government…
Janice Folk-Dawson was “outraged” when she learned the Northern Ontario Leaders Debate held in North Bay Tuesday was charging $125 a head to attend. “This is the democratic process,” the executive vice-president of the Ontario Federation of Labour told about 60 people gathered half a block from the Capitol Centre before the leaders of the…
You’d be forgiven for thinking that an unprecedented crisis like COVID-19 could change just about anyone, for good or bad. It changed our relationships; how we work; how we go out; how, or whether, we travel – surely even Doug Ford’s Conservatives could change. But the Premier, who once said that “people are sick and…
Just because it’s a cliché doesn’t mean this really isn’t the most important provincial election of our time. After everything we’ve gone through, the first election since COVID-19 is an incredible opportunity for workers and communities to elect a government that will finally build the Ontario we deserve — an opportunity we can’t let slip…
COVID-19 infections of health-care workers — among the highest levels since the start of the pandemic — are resulting in surgery cancellations or delays and reduced emergency department hours and capacity in several hospitals across the province. Staff absences are also forcing hospitals to redeploy nurses to cover for sick colleagues and to ask some…
It’s one of the oldest plays in the book. A crisis is followed by new laws that are intentionally broad enough to be applied to just about anybody who’s considered inconvenient. That’s what we’re seeing with the Ontario government’s Bill 100, Keeping Ontario Open for Business Act, a piece of legislation that could do little…
