CORNWALL, Ontario – Members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 7811 which represents Registered practical nurses, personal support workers, environmental cleaners, and other hospital workers rallied in front of the Cornwall Community Hospital (CCH) on Monday, Aug. 9.
CUPE, as well as the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) are in the process of negotiating a new contract, with union members opposing proposed concessions that have been put forward by their negotiators as well as Bill 124 from Doug Ford’s Ontario government which puts a one per cent limit on wage increases.
“First of all, it’s not right that after health care workers have sacrificed so much and stepped up for the people of Ontario, a cut to our real wages is how the provincial government says “thank you,” said Diane Pecore, President of Local 7811 at Monday’s rally. “But with inflation running now at 3.6%, the provincial government’s limits on
our ability to bargain wages to 1%, which means every member will see the spending power of their wages cut by 2.6%, just in the first year. You can’t afford this and it’s profoundly unfair. We all feed our families, pay rent or mortgages and buy gas and the prices of these things are surging, at a time when we are not allowed by this government to bargain increases that would cover even a third of the increases in those costs.”
Louis Rodrigues, Second Vice President of OCHU was also at Monday’s rally, and warned that their unions were at risk of losing senority rights for job applications, and that the province was making it easier to contract out work outside of the unions.
“We’re not going to give away any concessions,” he said. “We have to show the community what we’re worth.”
CUPE and OCHU are planning a protest in front of Queen’s Park in Toronto on Sept. 10 and Rodrigues said that the union would be able to bus Cornwall members to the protest in Toronto.
