Health Care

Unifor health care and social services workers from across Ontario gathered at Queen’s Park this week for a legislative lobby from May 25-28, demanding urgent action to strengthen public health care, address staffing shortages and stop the expansion of privatized care.

“Health care workers are holding this system together under impossible conditions,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. 

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. 

As Canada marks Paramedic Services Week, Unifor proudly recognizes the dedication, skill, and compassion of paramedics, emergency medical dispatchers, and frontline emergency services workers across the country.

This National Nursing Week, Unifor proudly celebrates the nurses whose skill, compassion, and expertise are essential to strong health care teams and quality patient care across Canada.

From hospitals and social services, long-term care homes to clinics, community care, home care, and emergency services, nurses provide skilled, dedicated care every single day. 

They are caregivers, advocates, mentors, and leaders who hold our health care system together through some of its greatest challenges.

On May 19, Unifor proudly honours the dedication, skill, and compassion of Personal Support Workers (PSWs) and Continuing Care Assistants (CCAs) across Canada.

Unifor members rallied outside Belleville General Hospital this week after Quinte Health announced the elimination of 59 Personal Support Worker (PSW) and Health Care Aide positions across multiple hospital sites, a move the union says will further strain Ontario’s already overwhelmed health care system.

Unifor is proud to welcome 218 new health care members at The Village of Ridgeview Court, Schlegel Villages in Milton, Ontario, marking another important step forward for workers in Ontario’s long-term care sector.

These members working in housekeeping, laundry, dietary, maintenance, recreation, and frontline care roles including PSWs and RPNs are joining the union at a critical time for health care workers. Across the sector, workers continue to face increasing workloads, wage pressures, and the physical and emotional toll of delivering care in an under-resourced system.

A PSW registry has opened in Ontario. 

While there have been previous attempts to register PSWs practising in the province, this is the first time the government has used legislation to set the regulatory framework of the designating body. 

The group responsible for the registry is the Health and Supportive Care Providers Oversight Authority (HSCPOA). 

HSCPOA was tasked with:

Unifor is deeply concerned about the layoffs of personal support workers (PSWs) at Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital, particularly as part of a broader pattern of restructuring happening across hospitals in Ontario.

Unifor Local 302 represents 27 PSWs at the hospital who have received layoff notices.