Ontario hospital union planning 5-minute protest to fight ongoing emergency orders

 

Front-line hospital staff in Ontario are planning a five-minute in-hospital protest this morning to fight the proposed extension of the province's emergency orders.

The Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, a division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, says it does not want the province's emergency order extended in its current form because it suspends their collective bargaining agreement.

The Progressive Conservative government introduced a bill two weeks ago that would allow it to keep some emergency measures in place in the months ahead.

The union says that without the CBA in place they have no workplace rights, including having the time and location of shifts changed without notice or vacations cancelled.

Union president Michael Hurley argues that while those measures were acceptable at the start of the pandemic the emergency is over in most of Ontario.

CUPE hospital workers staged workplace rallies across Ontario opposing aspects of Bill 195 on Friday.

The union's membership voted in favour of further political protest actions last night unless the bill is amended.

Health-care workers in Ontario do not have the right to strike and have a very limited right to refuse unsafe work.