Health Care

LONDON—Unifor is raising concerns about staffing changes at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) and warns that that the restructuring will further intensify pressure on health care workers across the system.

The hospital has confirmed significant staffing changes, including the elimination of hundreds of positions through attrition.

Unifor is calling on a mediator to help address key outstanding issues as bargaining continues for nearly 2,000 hospital workers across northern Ontario, with a focus on achieving stability and respect for frontline care.

“This round of bargaining is about fairness, and our hospital workers deserve so much more,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “Workers doing the same jobs, in the same hospitals, should not be paid differently or have access to different benefits—our members are feeling utterly disrespected.”

Nearly 125 Unifor members at Community Living Dryden–Sioux Lookout have ratified new collective agreements that improve care and provide significant improvements to wages, benefits and working conditions.

This month, Unifor heads to the bargaining table on behalf of nearly 2,000 hospital workers across north-eastern and north-western Ontario, with a strong mandate to strengthen wages, improve working conditions and recognize the essential work performed by frontline health care staff.

“This round of bargaining is about making sure the people who keep northern hospitals running are treated with the respect they deserve,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. 

HALIFAX—Unifor is demanding the Nova Scotia government reverse budget cuts recently announced that will reduce staffing at all 100 nursing homes in the province by 3% this year, followed by additional cuts of 3% in each of the next three years.

HALIFAX – Unifor is welcoming a landmark decision from the Nova Scotia Supreme Court declaring Bill 148, the Public Services Sustainability (2015) Act, unconstitutional. Bill 148 has been found to violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, causing workers to lose out on wages and benefits that should rightfully be theirs.

Unifor members brought the fight for public health care to Parliament Hill this week, meeting directly with MPs and senators and joining a public rally to call for action as shortages and long waits continue to strain services in communities across the country.