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There were hundreds gathered on November 6 at the bandstand in London’s Victoria Park to call on the Ontario government to support health care workers.
Unifor is in bargaining with the Ontario government this fall for approximately 17,000 health care workers across the province and is fighting to end the austerity and its impact on workers.
Members of Unifor, along with supporters from CUPE Ontario, the Council of Canadians, the Ontario Federation of Labour and others, heard from Jerry Dias and Katha Fortier from Unifor, Fred Hahn of CUPE Ontario, Sid Ryan of the OFL and Natalie Mehra of the Ontario Health Coalition.
Speakers addressed the growing indifference of the Ontario government toward health care workers in light of year after year of wage freezes and no sign of change on the horizon.
“Our health care workers can’t be the last on the list of our government’s priorities,” said Jerry Dias. “We can’t have the people who care for us being left behind – making the same wages that they were making nearly a decade earlier. Some day politicians will learn that we can’t achieve prosperity through austerity.”
Acknowledging the Federal government’s role in diminishing health care funding by allowing the Health Accord to lapse, Sid Ryan emphasized the need to get people out on the streets and prepared to fight for the system we hold so dear.
Natalie Mehra of the Ontario Health Coalition also spoke of the urgent need to educate Canadians about the damage currently being done to the health care system by the federal and provincial levels of government.
“Health care is a system that is a huge contributor to equality and provides a humanitarian service that is so crucial to everybody,” said Mehra. “In Ontario, we have been under an austerity budget that rivaled Britain’s, and patients and workers are suffering as a result.”
To follow the discussions about health care in Ontario, use the hashtag #UniforHealth on Twitter and follow @VermeyCorey and @KathaforUnifor.
