CUPE slams nursing cuts at St. Joseph’s Hamilton as hospital reels under budget deficit

Insufficient government funding is forcing hospitals to reduce frontline staff 

Hamilton, ON – A new wave of staffing cuts by St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton will hurt care delivery by increasing nurse-to-patient ratios, depriving patients of timely, quality care, increasing wait times and worsening the crisis in accessing hospital care, says the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

Rick Rigby, president of CUPE 786 representing more than 2,000 staff at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, said the hospital’s move to add RPNs and PSWs would not offset the loss of RNs, reducing the overall number of frontline workers and worsening nurse-patient ratios.

“Ultimately, this is a loss of 24 jobs followed by 60-odd staffing cuts earlier this year even as staff are desperate for more support,” Rigby said. “Frontline staff are frustrated by heavy workloads, which prevents them from providing the care they desperately want to deliver. It’s the reason staff burn out and quit health care, and for our employer and the provincial government to simply ignore these concerns is unacceptable.”

St. Joseph’s only received a 1.7 per cent base funding increase in 2025-26 from the provincial government, much lower than many other hospitals such as Hamilton Health Sciences (accounting for all ministry of health funding, St. Joseph’s received a 0.2 per cent annual increase).

Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, said that the elimination of 57 registered nurses was due to real dollar cuts in provincial government funding.

Hurley noted other hospitals in Ontario have also been cutting frontline staff including hundreds of registered nurses, registered practical nurses, personal support workers, cleaners and administrative staff.

“Ontario needs thousands more health care workers to keep pace with the increased demand for hospital care from an aging, growing population,” Hurley said. “In a province whose hospitals have the fewest nurses in the country, and the fewest staff per patient, more cuts are completely unjustified.”

Hurley said that “other provinces like British Columbia and Manitoba have introduced nurse-to-patient ratios, to provide patients with safe, quality care. Ontario is ignoring demands for safe nursing staffing and patients pay the price every day in increased medical errors and longer and longer waits for care”.

“If St. Joseph’s wants to look at where it could make savings painlessly, it should get out of its $300 million, 10-year deal building maintenance contact, to supervise a workforce of 10,” Rigby said.

CUPE is organizing a rally at the hospital scheduled for August 20 to protest staffing cuts.