CUPE’s hospital members adopt strong mandate to defend the quality of patient care

TORONTO – Hospital and long-term care workers represented by Ontario’s largest hospital union elected a new executive board on April 11 with a strong mandate to fight back against the government’s policies of underfunding and the privatization of surgeries and diagnostics. Michael Hurley and Sharon Richer were acclaimed as the president and secretary-treasurer of CUPE’s…

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“We don’t want to retire in poverty:” hundreds of SickKids staff and allies rally for a decent pension plan

The SickKids pension plan compares poorly to the standard pension plan offered by other hospitals in Ontario TORONTO – After more than a year of appeals to SickKids management virtually fell on deaf ears, the exasperated health care workers held a rally outside the hospital demanding a decent pension plan on Tuesday, April 9. They…

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Workers at Sault Ste. Marie Group Health Centre need real wage increase, or centre risks losing even more staff

SAULT STE. MARIE, ON – Front-line workers at the Group Health Centre in Sault Ste. Marie say they desperately need a real wage increase if the health centre doesn’t want to lose more staff. In January, the Group Health Centre announced that eight physicians would be leaving the centre at the end of May, leaving…

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Health administrators deliver supermajority petition to Carefor demanding better treatment

OTTAWA – There is a network of nurses and personal support workers doing hundreds of in-home healthcare visits to seniors across eastern Ontario every day. It appears seamless, except the infrastructure behind that network – the 70 health administrators who schedule visits, book appointments, manage sick calls and more – is cracking. Those health administrators,…

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More crumbling public services, more cost-of-living crisis, more privatization: “It’s happening here”

TORONTO – Ontarians desperate for relief from the cost-of-living crisis and eager for more investment in their public services have been let down again by the Conservatives’ budget, which was delivered this afternoon. “This budget sets up ordinary Ontarians for more years of misery,” said Fred Hahn, president of CUPE Ontario, the union that represents…

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“Just enough funding to maintain a perpetual crisis in hospital care:” union laments provincial budget

TORONTO – The increase in hospital funding announced yesterday is not enough to ease the hospital crisis and will actually cause further deterioration, says CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE). “It doesn’t keep up with hospital inflationary pressures (of 5.6 per cent) let alone the pressures of an aging and growing population, even as…

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