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Unifor is condemning plans by the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) to eliminate 49 positions, warning the cuts will place additional strain on an already overburdened Unifor Local 2458 health care workers and further impact patient care.
“Health care workers in Ontario are already being pushed to the brink,” said National President Lana Payne. “Cutting frontline positions while hospitals face staffing shortages, rising demand, and worker burnout is the wrong approach. Ontarians deserve properly funded public health care systems that prioritize patients and workers, not austerity measures that deepen the crisis.”
Hospitals across Ontario continue to struggle with recruitment and retention challenges, staffing shortages, and increasing demand for care, while workers report worsening workloads and burnout.
“These position eliminations are deeply concerning for workers, patients, and the entire Chatham-Kent community,” said Unifor Ontario Regional Director Samia Hashi. “Frontline staff are already dealing with impossible workloads and growing pressures, eliminating positions will only intensify those challenges and make it harder to deliver the quality care that Ontarians deserve.”
Unifor has repeatedly called on the provincial government to increase stable core funding for public hospitals, improve retention strategies, and stop the expansion of privatized care models that drain resources and workers from the public system. These demands are central to the union’s new Care Can’t Wait campaign that launched earlier this month in the lead up to a week-long lobby at Queen’s Park.
“It’s shocking. To be brought into a meeting and to lose this many full-time jobs at one time was very shocking and disappointing," said Unifor Local 2458 President Ken Durocher.
The union has also raised concerns about growing pressures on Personal Support Workers (PSWs), including issues tied to Ontario’s new PSW registry and the Health and Supportive Care Providers Oversight Authority (HSCPOA). Earlier this year, Unifor warned that unfair barriers and additional burdens on PSWs could push experienced workers out of the sector at a time when the province desperately needs to retain skilled health care staff.
Unifor represents more than 35,000 health care and social services workers across Canada, including workers in hospitals, long-term care, retirement homes, home care, and community services.
