The full text of this letter is below.

An Open Letter to the Peel District School Board Community

In recent weeks, Canadians have been rightly shocked by media reports of Islamophobia and hate being directed against members of the Peel District School Board (PDSB) community.

Unfortunately, the widely publicized, Islamophobic rhetoric and actions of some in the public galleries at the Peel District School Board’s March 22^nd meeting is just one in a series of hate-filled incidents experienced by our school community over the last few months.

From vile attacks on elected school board trustees in public forums and a barrage of ugly comments on social media to the direct targeting of our students by ‘You Tube bounty’, our community is experiencing behavior that is not only deplorable but dangerous.

As education workers, we expect our employer, the Peel District School Board, to ensure our rights under the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom are respected. This is what we want for ourselves, we desire for all others, and especially for our students.

As education workers and members of CUPE, we stand in full support of the PDSB’s effort to ensure students’ human rights are respected in our schools.

We also know that the hateful rhetoric and actions we’re seeing have nothing to do with the steps taken by the PDSB to ensure students’ rights.

They are meant to intimidate and spread hate.

Those who seek to explain away this behaviour as some normal part of a debate on accommodation are at best disingenuous and at worse, deceitfully trying to normalize bigotry.

There is nothing normal about the spewing of hatred, anger and Islamophobia.

It is wrong and it must stop.

As education workers, we do not tolerate bullying, hatred or Islamophobia in the hallways of our schools. As residents of Peel and members of CUPE Ontario, we will not tolerate it in our public Board meetings or in our broader political discourse.

But how should our community confront those behind these disgusting attacks when it is perfectly clear they want to elicit a response and gain attention? In other words, how do we not feed the trolls?

These are real tactical response questions that are unlikely to get easier in our current political climate, but there should never be a question about where we all stand when confronting hate in our community.

For us in CUPE, that is the easy answer.

First, we stand with and we will stand up for, the students of Peel District School Board. Each and every one of them deserves a safe, supportive school environment where they can learn, free from discrimination, bullying or hatred. As education workers, providing them with that environment is our foremost goal and we will always stand up for our students.

In that effort, we stand with the Peel District School Board against those who are spreading Islamophobia at our Board.  We stand with the Board in demanding an end to hateful behaviour that is antithetical to creating a learning environment focussed student success.  We stand with the Trustees of the Board who deserve to do their work, as our elected representatives, free of the harassment they’ve experienced these past few months.

Finally, we will stand with the Peel District School Board community in pursuit of an inclusive, cooperative and caring learning environment that is respectful of the human rights of all students, staff and parents.

We know in this effort, we do not stand alone.

Lisa Magee, President, CUPE Local 1628

Dan Bouchard, President, CUPE 2544

Terri Preston, Chair, CUPE Ontario School Board Coordinating Committee

Fred Hahn, President of CUPE Ontario

CUPE is Ontario’s community union, with more than 260,000 members providing quality public services we all rely on, in every part of the province, every day. CUPE Ontario members are proud to work in social services, health care, municipalities, school boards, universities and airlines.

For more information, contact:

Mary Unan, CUPE Communications, 647 390 9839

www.cupe.on.ca

A ministry of health report into the beating and one other incident of assault made public recently, cites several orders against St. Joseph’s Villa and violations of the province’s Long-Term Care Act.

“We have compassion and deep concern over what’s happened to Mr. Acker,” says Hurley. “We would like to see system changes that would ensure this type of assault becomes a very rare event. This investigation doesn’t do that.”

As Ontario’s long-term care system continues to receive thousands of hospital patients with complex medical and psychological conditions without any additional staffing, training and risk assessments, the acuity of the violence against residents and against staff in long-term care is increasing system-wide.

The beating Mr. Acker received this past January happened at night, when staffing levels are skeleton. St. Joseph’s Villa night staffing is typical of most long-term care homes with 1 PSW to 24 residents on regular care units and 2 PSWs for 24 residents on dementia wards. Registered practical nurses (RPNs) are responsible for 100 residents on four units.

“The ministry of health investigation has ignored glaring staffing shortages and found fault with individuals and processes. Having set the impossible goal of trying to safely deliver long-term care without adequate staff resources, the ministry rebukes an institution where there is a public incident, but turns a blind eye to the hundreds of resident assaults by other residents that happen every month system-wide in Ontario. Because the vast majority of residents have some form of cognitive impairment or dementia the staffing levels in long-term care are a critical factor in resident safety,” says Hurley.

In the five years between 2006 and 2011 the number of people 85 and over increased 34 per cent in Ontario. The majority of residents in long-term care in Ontario are over 85 years old and have chronic and complex needs. Despite these key indicators, data confirms that compared with other provinces Ontario underfunds long-term care. Staffing levels are also among the lowest of the provinces.

Expert studies have identified increased direct care and higher staffing as key aspects of decreasing the climbing number of resident-on-resident violence. OCHU/CUPE is calling for a legislated minimum average of four worked hours of nursing and personal care per resident per day in long-term care facilities.

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For more information please contact:

Stella Yeadon CUPE Communications 416-559-9300

On Wednesday, April 5, the president of CUPE 2049 was contacted by a representative from Ministry of Labour, who asked the union to consider binding arbitration as a means of reaching an agreement between the union and the society and allowing services to the community to be restored. CUPE 2049 agreed to entertain the request.

To give the process a fair chance of success, both parties have agreed to refrain from public statements regarding next steps. CUPE will therefore issue no communications about the lockout or progress toward a resolution until further notice.

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For more information, contact:

Mary Unan, CUPE Communications, 647-390-9839

70% of Hydro One is still owned by the people.  It is not too late to stop the privatization of our valuable hydro system. With extremely high electricity bills, residents are forced to choose between food and heat. The Premier is promising temporary, band-aid solutions that will harm future generations.

WHAT: Keep Our Power March and Rally

WHERE: march from Hydro One Headquarters (483 Bay St, Toronto) Rally at Queen’s Park

WHEN: Saturday April 8 – 1:00 p.m. (Meet in front of Hydro One Headquarters)

We stand in solidarity with Libby Keenan and the thousands of Ontarios who are joining the movement to Keep Hydro Public. Our campaign is supported by more than 20 community, labour, environment, anti-poverty and student organizations. Find out more about at KeepHydroPublic.ca or on our Facebook page: Keep Hydro Public.

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For more information contact:

Doly Begum, Coalition Coordinator, Keep Hydro Public

doly@keephydropublic.ca; 647-998-3659 (cell)

The new research by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) indicates that not only is long-term care underfunded in Ontario, it is also understaffed compared to the other provinces.  Long-Term Care Understaffing Fewer Hands in Ottawa reviews the brewing crisis in care and estimates the level of understaffing at Ottawa long-term care homes.

Two Ottawa long-term care direct care staff, one a nurse, the other a personal support worker will be available at the report launch to talk about their front line experiences providing care to residents in a challenging, under-resourced and increasingly under stress system.  They report that care is compromised in a number of areas:  resident cleanliness, eating, dressings, conditions that force residents into incontinence, and insufficient infection control.  Sadly, they say a lack of time to provide emotional care to residents, who are often at their most vulnerable and in the final stages of life, is now the “accepted norm.”

Ottawa has 17 long-term care facilities with 3,035 beds. Only the sickest are even being allowed to wait for a long-term care bed because there aren’t enough beds in the system.

According to the research an aggressive government strategy to cut costs by removing as many patients as possible from hospitals has compounded the difficulties of rapidly changing demographics.

“The majority of long-term care residents are over 85 years old with complex conditions, including many with dementia. Yet care and staffing levels have not increased proportionately in Ontario,” says Michael Hurley, CUPE Ontario first-vice president.

WHAT:            Media conference ‘Long-Term Care Understaffing Fewer Hands in Ottawa’ report

WHERE:         CUPE Ottawa Area Office, Room 104, 1378 Triole Street, Ottawa

WHEN:            Wednesday, April 19, 2017, 11:00 a.m.

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For more information please contact:

Stella Yeadon              CUPE Communications                                             416-559-9300

A research report – Long-Term Care Understaffing Fewer Hands in Ottawa – prepared by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) reviews the brewing crisis in care and estimates the level of understaffing at Ottawa long-term care homes. It shows that residents in Ottawa’s 17 long-term care facilities are shortchanged 1,460 hours of health care each day and 532,642 hours a year compared to the rest of Canada. That is an extra 273 full-time health care staff.

For total staff (health care and administrative and support staff in Ottawa long-term care) there would be an extra 810,800 hours of care and service.  That would amount to an extra 416 full-time long-term care positions in Ottawa.

The provincial Liberals’ reluctance to establish minimum care standards in Ontario long-term care homes has left nurses scrambling to fulfil increasingly fragile residents’ health care needs, said Bonnie Soucie an Ottawa registered practical nurse (RPN).

In nearly two decades as a nurse in long-term care, Soucie said residents’ care requirements have grown. They are older with multiple complex conditions, “but staffing and care levels have not kept pace because provincial funding is too low as research shows. The system relies on the altruism and dedication of nurses and other direct care staff who are beyond demoralized because they don’t have time to give residents the level of care they require.”

Heath data shows that long-term care residents are sicker than ever, have a much higher acuity and require much more care. The percentage of residents with heart disease are growing at a rate of 4.5 per cent per year and those with renal failure at a rate of 3.7 per cent per year.  Residents with six or more formal diagnoses are growing at a rate of 4.8 per cent a year.

There are 0.590 health care full-time equivalent (FTE) staff per resident in Ontario and 0.687 in the rest of Canada. This is equal to 3.15 paid hours per day in Ontario and 3.67 hours in the rest of Canada. The rest of Canada has 16.4 per cent more health care full-time equivalent staff per resident than Ontario.  That is over half an hour of extra paid care for every resident each day.

That gap in care between Ontario and the rest of the provinces impacts resident cleanliness, eating, wound dressings and results in conditions that force residents into incontinence, and insufficient infection control, said Tammy Rainey a long-time Ottawa personal support worker (PSW).  “It’s very sad that we don’t have the time to pause and give residents in the final stages of life the emotional care all of us would agree is humane and warranted,” said Rainey.

The minimum level required to improve quality of care is about 4.5 to 4.8 worked hours per resident per day. CUPE is asking for a legislated 4 hour daily resident care standard and a funding increase for long-term care in next week’s provincial budget. Annual provincial funding per long-term care bed in Ontario is $43, 970.77 compared with the rest of Canada (minus Ontario) of $52,185.09.

“Unfortunately need for improved funding, better staffing and higher resident care often comes up through assaults and deaths.  With increasing illness of patients, there are aggressive residents.  Attacks occur on other residents sometimes resulting in deaths like that of James Acker just a few days. Resident safety and higher staffing must be a priority for this government,” said Michael Hurley, CUPE Ontario first vice-president.

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For more information please contact:

Stella Yeadon                       CUPE Communications                      416-559-9300

At the same time, the CAS’s representatives are trying to dodge their legal responsibility to bargain with the union that represents workers at Nipissing and Parry Sound CAS by dissolving the union in the workplace.

“Three weeks ago we called on the Minister of Children and Youth Services, the Right Hon. Michael Coteau, to take over the administration of Nipissing and Parry Sound CAS,” said Fred Hahn, president of CUPE Ontario.

“With this latest ruse by the society’s directors, I have to ask: What is Minister Coteau waiting for?

“This kind of move is unprecedented. The CAS’s directors are clearly unwilling to have the agency fulfil its most basic duties as a children’s aid society; they’ve also made it clear they want this CAS to operate as a non-union shop. It’s an agency out of control.”

In early April, the Ministry of Labour contacted both CUPE and the CAS to request that both parties explore arbitration as a path to restoring child welfare services in the north and ending the lockout. Minister Coteau had already expressed his support for arbitration as a way of resolving the labour dispute.

CUPE agreed immediately to the ministry’s request and worked hard, with the assistance of the provincial mediator, to use the past two weeks to make the necessary progress.

Throughout that same period, the CAS did little more than drag its feet by responding with irrational and unacceptable proposals – and this despite the fact that the CAS’s own board of directors had already passed a motion to take outstanding matters to arbitration.

“If the situation weren’t so serious for the community and for our members, I’d find it funny that the society’s directors have termed their imposition of terms ‘an invitation’ to CUPE members to return to work,” said Hahn.

“What they are really doing is attempting to dissolve the union. But I can tell you, neither the labour laws of Ontario nor the will of CUPE members allow them to do this.”

For more information, contact:

Debbie Hill, President, CUPE 2049, 705-358-5887

Mary Unan, CUPE Communications, 647-390-9839

Today the leaders of Local 2049 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) consulted the workers they represent and, thanks to overwhelming support, announced that the labour dispute begun by Nipissing and Parry Sound CAS four months ago will continue.

“For two weeks, we believed we were working alongside the CAS towards an arbitrated solution. It was the government’s recommendation; the CAS board passed a motion in favour of it. Then yesterday the CAS shocked us by issuing its surprise ‘lose-lose’ ultimatum,” said Debbie Hill, President of CUPE 2049.

“Now, after a four-month lockout, CAS directors are telling us, come back to work, but we’ll still foist on you everything that caused the dispute in the first place – oh, and we’ll also get rid of your union at the same time.

“What can you say when you’re faced with that sort of arrogance, that sort of deception? You have to say, ‘No.’ ”

The terms and conditions that Nipissing and Parry Sound CAS has posted for a return to work would saddle workers with an inappropriate and harmful sick leave plan – something that would ultimately hurt services and which has been one of the major issues of the lockout. The society’s terms also remove the rights of the union from the collective agreement and fail to recognize role of the union or even which workers are unionized. To add insult to injury, the terms it wants to impose are worse than those it tabled at the beginning of bargaining in 2016.

“We have never seen anything like this,” said Fred Hahn, President of CUPE Ontario. “Even in private-sector companies, where they can claim to have profits at stake, they don’t behave with this kind of ruthlessness.

“But the people making these decisions at Nipissing and Parry Sound CAS are supposed to be concerned about the welfare of vulnerable children; they even claim to value their staff. But they’re clearly not able to negotiate a contract with their workers, or keep a promise, or even abide by instructions from their own board of directors.

“The Minister of Children and Youth Services couldn’t have a clearer sign that his ministry needs to step in and take over this agency,” concluded Hahn.

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For more information, contact:

Debbie Hill, President, CUPE 2049, 705-358-5887

Mary Unan, CUPE Communications, 647-390-9839

Tomorrow, Friday, April 21, 2017 at 12:30 p.m., Ottawa and eastern Ontario long-term care staff are taking the care and understaffing issues to the constituency doorstep of Ottawa-Vanier MPP Nathalie Des Rosiers.  They want her to support Bill 33 (Time to Care Act), legislation that would give residents 4 hours of care daily.

“Our seniors in Ontario need to know that someone will be there to give them the care they need and deserve. And right now that isn’t happening,” says Joanne Waddell an eastern Ontario long-term care worker. “We’re reaching out to all MPPs from all three parties and asking them to support Bill 33. It’s the right thing to do. For all of us.”

The majority of Ontario long-term care residents are over 85 years old with complex conditions, including many with dementia.

In Ottawa and across Ontario, front line personal support workers (PSWs) and registered practical nurses (RPNs) report that the care they are able to provide residents is not adequate to meet residents’ increasing needs. Care they say is compromised in a number of areas including resident cleanliness, eating, dressings, conditions that force residents into incontinence, and insufficient infection control.  Sadly, they say a lack of time to provide emotional care to residents, who are often at their most vulnerable and in the final stages of life, is now the “accepted norm.”

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For more information please contact:

Stella Yeadon             CUPE Communications                                             416-559-9300

In its submissions to the OLRB, the union contends the employer has violated the Ontario Labour Relations Act in multiple ways. The Act (legislation governing the rules of engagement in collective bargaining) is clear that where there is a bargaining agent – a union – representing workers, the employer may not attempt to “direct deal” with individual employees. Yet that is exactly what the CHS did on April 7^th, when it couriered 227 individual offers to striking workers by Purolator, at their home addresses.

“Repeatedly, the CHS has sought to prolong this strike rather than resolve it,” said Barbara Wilker-Frey, CUPE National Representative. “They took over three weeks to come back to the table after the strike began. Once at the table, they refused to make any meaningful compromise toward resolution – even when faced with a major move by the union to address their so-called liability concern. Then, once talks broke down again, they tried to cut individual deals with our members.”

The union’s complaint outlines that in addition to “direct dealing”, the CHS also shared information with striking workers that it never once tabled in negotiations. The CHS also sent out false financial information to employees, which differs from figures used at the bargaining table.

“We wonder how many thousands of dollars the CHS wasted sending these misleading, inappropriate individual letters to our members by same-day courier across the province,” said Wilker-Frey. “The money CHS is spending to prolong this strike should be going to provide high-quality services to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. We continue to urge them to find a mature way to resolve this dispute. We have met them on their major point. They need to find a way to get to yes. Both parties owe that to the community we serve.”

The 227 workers have not had a wage increase in four years. They are counsellors, literacy instructors, audiologists, speech language pathologists, interpreters/interpreter trainers, clerical support, program coordinators, program assistants, and information technology specialists.

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For more information:

Andrea Addario, CUPE Communications, 416-738-4329

This afternoon the society’s executive director signed the return-to-work protocol provided by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and agreed to enter into binding arbitration.

The society made this latest move in the face of overwhelming solidarity among the workers it locked out four months ago; the strong community support they enjoyed; and their decision to take strike action in response to the draconian terms and conditions that the CAS wanted to impose in return for lifting the lockout.

The agreed return-to-work protocol will see workers back on the job on Monday morning, 24 April.

For the past month, CUPE had been calling for a takeover of the agency by the Ministry of Children and Youth Services in light of CAS negotiators’ unwillingness to commit to an arbitrated settlement of the dispute.

CUPE, provincial mediators, and the provincial government were all in agreement about the need to resolve outstanding issues and reach a new collective agreement through binding arbitration.

“Throughout the four months of this lockout, CUPE members have always had two goals in their sights: reaching a fair collective agreement for unionized workers at Nipissing and Parry Sound CAS and restoring high-quality child protection services in the region,” said CUPE Ontario president Fred Hahn.

“After nearly a year of throwing up needless obstacles to bargaining and after months spent depriving northern communities of the child welfare services they deserve, the agency has finally relented and – workers hope – has decided to commit itself to those goals too.

“As our members return to the jobs that they love, we’ll continue supporting them to ensure they can do so in a way that respects their skills and their commitment to their communities,” Hahn concluded.

The terms that Nipissing and Parry Sound CAS had attached to lifting the lockout eliminated recognition of the union, the grievance procedure, and workers’ recourse to arbitration, among other conditions.

“CUPE members are thrilled that their solidarity paid off and at the prospect of returning to work on Monday. It has been a grueling four months on the picket line, but we couldn’t have made it through without the support we had from the community, from our union, and from other union activists, or without the incredible strength and solidarity of our members,” said Debbie Hill, president of CUPE 2049, which represents workers at Nipissing and Parry Sound CAS.

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For more information, contact:

Debbie Hill, President, CUPE 2049, 705-358-5887

Mary Unan, CUPE Communications, 647-390-9839

The rally will feature Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) National president Mark Hancock and CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn.

Hospital staff from across Ontario are in Kenora for meetings from Tuesday, April 25 through Thursday, April 27, and will join the rally, along with Lake of the Woods District Hospital staff.

Ontario’s 2017 provincial budget will be released this Thursday. CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) is calling for a 5 per cent funding increase for hospitals.

Hospitals and long-term care facilities have endured 8 years of real budget cuts. The Lake of the Woods District Hospital has lost 25 per cent of its budget in real terms over the 8-year period and is undergoing an operational review, which in other communities has meant an externally driven budget cutting exercise.

Based on the latest figures from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), Ontario government funding for hospitals is $1,395.73 per capita. The rest of Canada, excluding Ontario, spends $1,749.69 per capita. In other words, provincial and territorial governments outside of Ontario spend $353.96 more per person on hospitals than Ontario does. That is a whopping 25.3 per cent more than Ontario.

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For more information please contact:

Michael Hurley
President, Ontario Council of Hospital Unions - OCHU/CUPE  416-884-0770

Stella Yeadon
CUPE Communications 416-559-9300

Beginning at 12 noon tomorrow, April 25, striking CUPE 2073 members will be joined by fellow CUPE members, their supporters in the Deaf, Oral Deaf, Deafened and Hard of Hearing communities, CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn, as well as labour and community allies, will gather for a rally and information picket outside the building housing the Provincial Ministries of Health, and Community and Social Services.

The two ministries provide CHS with a significant portion of their funding to provide vital services to the Ontario’s Deaf, Oral Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities at 24 offices across Ontario.

          WHAT:      Rally and information picket in support of striking CUPE 2073 members

          WHEN:      Tuesday, April 25, 12 noon to 1 p.m.

          WHERE:    Outside Ministries of Health, Community and Social Services, 80 Grosvenor Street (Hepburn Block)

          WHO:        Striking CUPE 2073 members, CHS clients, Community and Labour allies

Speakers to include:  CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn, CUPE 2073 President Stacey Connor, George Postlethwait Jr., President of the Ontario Association of the Deaf.

The 227 members of CUPE 2073 provide a wide range of vital services to Ontario’s Deaf, Oral Deaf, Deafened and Hard of Hearing communities at CHS offices across the province. They have been without a contract for more than four years, and have been on strike since March 6.

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For more information, please contact:

Kevin Wilson, CUPE Communications, 416-821-6641

“This government has done a lot of talking about growing inequality and the increase in temporary and low-wage jobs but has done nothing but commission the Changing Workplace Review and stall on releasing its report,” said Hahn. “What workers need is action. The government must make some foundational changes to our labour laws that would improve the lives of all working people and reverse the growing trend of inequality.”

Along with taking immediate steps to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, Hahn outlined four changes to the Labour Relations Act and the Employment Standards Act that would make real improvements in the lives of the hundreds of thousands of people in Ontario who are struggling to make ends meet.

Changes needed to the Labour Relations Act:

1. Make it easier for workers to join a union by implementing Card Based Certification.
2. Stop employers from using stall tactics by mandating First Contract Arbitration.
3. Stop allowing employers to undermine workers by bringing back Anti-Scab Legislation.
4. Create consistency of service and care by implementing Successor Rights for workers stuck in a revolving door of competitive bidding.

Changes needed to the Employment Standards Act:

1. Expand the definition of employees to ensure contract and temp employees are entitled to the same wages, rights and benefits as their colleagues.
2. Mandate paid sick time for all employees.
3. Extend just cause protection to all workers so no one can be fired without a legitimate reason.
4. Extend Employment Standards protection to include temporary and agricultural workers, including workers assigned through Temporary Help Agencies and Temporary Foreign Workers.

“These days a few people are getting richer and everyone else is getting poorer. Costs are going up, wages have virtually flat-lined and fewer and fewer people can even find good, full-time work. This spells long-term disaster for our society if we don’t act now,” said Hahn. “The number one way we can rebalance our economy and improve the lives of all workers is to make it easier for them to join a union. The government could make that happen today, if only they had the will.”

“So many of the people stuck in low-wage, part-time and temporary jobs are women,” said Hahn. “Does this Premier really want to go down in history as someone who could have made their lives better but chose to ignore them instead?”

CUPE is Ontario’s community union, with more than 260,000 members providing quality public services we all rely on, in every part of the province, every day. CUPE Ontario members are proud to work in social services, health care, municipalities, school boards, universities and airlines.

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For more information, contact: Sarah Jordison, CUPE Communications, 416-578-5638

www.cupe.on.ca

“We know that negotiations require compromise and effort,” said Stacey Connor, president of Local 2073. “We’ve worked hard to meet CHS on their major demands – but they choose to put their energy into prolonging this strike, rather than finding a way to work with us to end it. It is incredibly frustrating for our members, who love their work and want to get back to providing vital services to the community. We wonder if CHS sees the long-term damage that is happening here. If they can’t, we hope the provincial government, as their major funder, will provide a wake-up call.”

“The Ministries of Health and Community and Social Services are the major funders of this agency,” said Fred Hahn, president of CUPE Ontario. “It’s high time they took a closer look at what’s going on with CHS. As reported by the CBC, this is an agency where some executives have seen their salaries rise by 75% while frontline staff have been flatlined for four years – four years. And these dramatic increases in executive salary have occurred over the same period that some regional offices have been closed.”

Hahn called on the ministries to conduct a review of spending at CHS. “In 2016 fiscal year alone, as reported to the Canada Revenue Agency, CHS spent $840,000 on consultants. The government’s ‘hands off’ approach is not confidence-inspiring. We’re asking the province to review how much of the funding they provide is actually goes to frontline service delivery.”

President of the Ontario Association for the Deaf, George Postlethwait Jr, also spoke at the rally. “The Deaf and Hard of Hearing community is suffering without the vital services these workers provide,” he said. “The CHS claims to be functioning normally during the strike – we know that’s not true. Members of the community are unable to access the services they need. The government just has to ask us, the Deaf and Hard of Hearing consumers of these services. This is far from business as usual, and we urge the provincial government to take a closer look at how CHS is spending its funding.”

Local 2073 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) represents 227 workers at CHS offices in Ontario. Members of CUPE 2073 work at CHS as counsellors, literacy instructors, audiologists, speech language pathologists, interpreters/interpreter trainers, clerical support, program coordinators, program assistants, and information technology specialists. 90% of those on strike are women, and 40% of the workforce is Deaf.

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For more information:

Andrea Addario, CUPE Communications, 416-738-4329

Kevin Wilson, CUPE Communications, 416-821-6641

“They keep saying that Ontario is going through an economic boom. A boom for who? Outside of the Queen’s Park bubble workers’ real wages continue to decline, Ontario has the highest rate of student debt and good paying full-time jobs are disappearing while corporate executives keep lining their pockets,” says Hahn. “This is the legacy of the past fourteen years of Liberal government, and this budget does nothing to help reverse this growing trend.”

According to Statistics Canada, median wages for Ontario workers have dropped substantially in many communities since the Liberals took office in 2003. (see charts below)

“Let’s not pretend that the Premier’s spin in the Queen’s Park bubble actually reflects the real-life experience of people across the province,” says Hahn. “Thanks to her government, hydro bills are out of control, community schools are still closing, seniors in long-term care still aren’t getting the quality of care they need and waiting list for developmental services are getting worse while corporations and those at the top still get away with paying far less than their fair share of taxes.”

“Today’s budget does nothing to raise the minimum wage and makes no commitment to improve working conditions for the hundreds of thousands of people struggling to make ends meet in this, so called, booming economy,” says Hahn. “Even their child care commitments are a drop in the bucket compared to what’s needed and still leave most Ontarian paying more for child care than anywhere else in the country.”

“They like to talk about making life easier for people but their hydro relief plan is a sham,” say Hahn. “They’re making us pay even more out of our own pockets over a longer period of time, while also costing billions in tax revenue to pay for greater profits for private shareholders and providers. That is money that should be going into ensuring our aging seniors get the quality long-term care they need, bringing down the cost of child care for all families and strengthening the services we all rely on.”

“Public services in this province have been starved of the funding they need for years under this government,” says Hahn. “Now they’re trying to buy votes by using the budget to make spending promises, most of which won’t happen until after the next election, if they ever happen at all. Who exactly do they think they’re fooling at this point?”

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For more information, contact: Sarah Jordison, CUPE Communications, 416-578-5638

Ahead of Nursing Week celebrations next week, Maggie Jewell a registered practical nurse (RPN) from Lindsay and Sandra Hillcoat an RPN from Kitchener, say they are looking for more than accolades and statements read in the Legislature about the dedication, skills and compassion of nurses.

They want MPPs from all three political parties to take an unblinking look at the systematic and widespread problem that nurses and other health care staff face on the job – the problem of patient and family member violence. The nurses say that a health care workplace that is unsafe for staff is also unsafe for patients.

At Tuesday’s media conference, Jewel and Hillcoat will review the amendment to the federal Criminal Code they want all Ontario MPPs to support, regardless of party affiliation. Joining them at the Queen’s Park media studio are Katha Fortier, Assistant to the President of Unifor, and Michael Hurley, the President of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU)/CUPE.

Unifor is Canada’s largest private sector union, with 310,000 members. The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is Canada’s largest public sector union, with 640,000 members - OCHU is the Ontario hospital division of the CUPE. Together they represent over 100,000 health sector staff in Ontario.

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For more information please contact:

Stella Yeadon                       CUPE Communications                                         416-559-9300

Sandra Hillcoat a registered practical nurse (RPN) from Kitchener and Maggie Jewell an RPN from Lindsay recounted stories of nurses and personal support workers who have suffered broken bones, facial and brain injuries and in several cases, who have been left unable to walk or to work again, following a patient assault. Many nurses suffer post-traumatic stress and other psychological damage.

“Violence against health care staff is normalized by our employers as an accepted hazard of our work. Patients and their families take out their frustration over an increasingly under-resourced and stressed health system on health care staff. We are here today to say that health care workplaces that are unsafe for staff are also unsafe for the public we care for. We are also here to ask for real recognition from MPPs for Nursing Week in the form of all-party support for an amendment to the Criminal Code which would discourage violent attacks on health care workers,” said Jewell with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

One in two nurses was assaulted in Ontario in 2014, the last year for which complete data is available.

“We are asking for recognition for Nursing Week in the form of a signal from Ontario’s provincial politicians that the wave of violent assaults against nurses and health care staff is unacceptable. The amendment we are asking all MPPs to support requires a judge to consider the fact that the victim of an assault is a health care worker to be an aggravating circumstance for the purposes of sentencing,” said Hillcoat with Unifor.

A similar Criminal Code provision covers transit employees in Canada. The amendment would apply to a nurse, a doctor, a personal support worker, a paramedic or any other health care worker including those in long-term care, home care and other community support staff.

“The reality is that society has an unfortunately high tolerance for violence against women and this cannot help but materialize in workplaces which are largely female dominated, as in health care. Many nurses have been beaten up at work so badly that they will never work again. Amending the Criminal Code is a beacon to nurses and health care staff that the wave of assaults against them is seen to be serious and that it is unacceptable,” said Katha Fortier, Assistant to the President of Unifor.

Front line health care staff with both Unifor and CUPE report a culture where acts of violence are not reported and investigated and where staff are blamed for the assaults against them. One nurse in North Bay was fired in 2016 for speaking out about the issue of violence.

The problem is very complex, said Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions. “It is rooted in society’s attitude towards violence against women; the impact that cuts to services like mental health and addictions are having; increased drug use; public impatience with longer waits within institutions for attention and the way in which work is managed within health care. The problem of violence won’t go away just with this amendment to the Criminal Code. But talking about the problem, exposing it and working for change will turn this problem around.”

The amendment to the Criminal Code being sought can be found at the following links: www.ochu.on.ca, https://cupe.ca/nurse-violence-amendment and www.unifor.org.

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For more information please contact:

Stella Yeadon                    CUPE Communications                                               416-559-9300

Hurley and Dave Shelefontiuk the president of Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 1623 will hold a media conference in Sudbury on Wednesday, May 3, 2017 at 10 a.m. at 885 Regent St. 3^rd floor – Unit 11A. They will announce a provincial hospital rally in Sudbury in June and review the implications of the Ontario budget funding shortfall for hospitals.

The budget only gave 3 per cent. But real costs are rising 5.3 per cent.

“For hospitals like Health Sciences North that means continued overcrowding and not enough staff to meet the needs of increasingly sicker patients. We are optimistic that the other two Ontario parties appreciate the need to restore funding to hospitals,” says Hurley.

Shelefontiuk says front line staff at the hospital are working flatout and dealing with high workloads and demands. “I don’t see how keeping a hospital workforce so lean that they are permanently exhausted can be good for patient outcomes,” says Shelenfontiuk.

Hospitals and long-term care facilities have endured 8 years of real budget cuts. OCHU and others including the Ontario Hospital Association had called for at least a 5 per cent funding increase for hospitals in 2017.

Based on the latest figures from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), Ontario government funding for hospitals is $1,395.73 per capita. The rest of Canada, excluding Ontario, spends $1,749.69 per capita. In other words, provincial and territorial governments outside of Ontario spend $353.96 more per person on hospitals than Ontario does. That is a whopping 25.3 per cent more than Ontario.

The June provincial hospital funding rally planned for Sudbury is one of several planned for 2017. Over 2000 hospital and long-term care workers attended similar rallies held in October 2016 in Kingston and in Hamilton in February.

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For more information please contact:

Michael Hurley         President, Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE)                  416-884-0770

Stella Yeadon           Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Communications              416-559-9300

Dave Shelefontiuk    President, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 1623                705-929-8457