As is his tradition, Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli has issued his season’s greetings card to constituents but this year, unionized North Bay Regional Health Centre staff have a special holiday card delivery of their own for him.
Monday morning, North Bay hospital workers popped by Fedeli’s constituency office on Main Street to drop off their oversized, “All we want for Christmas, is no appeal of the Bill 124 decision,” holiday greeting card.
See related: Ontario court strikes down wage-limiting law for public sector workers
Now that the Ontario Superior Court agrees that Bill 124 interferes with hospital workers’ rights to freely bargain wages and has struck the wage cap down, hospital nurses, support, clerical and paramedical staff, members of five large health care unions are urging the PC government not to appeal the decision.
See also: Ford says he won't use notwithstanding clause to fight Bill 124 after court ruling
All hospital workers want for Christmas is for the PC government to invest time and funding into working on staffing solutions along with their unions, not into fighting them in court.
While the season’s greetings focus on merry and bright it’s hard for North Bay hospital front-line staff who are struggling with surging patient levels, skeleton staffing, and the continuing exodus of co-workers, to feel festive, says Brett Campbell, president of CUPE 139 at the North Bay Regional Health Centre.
The greeting card that asks the MPP not to appeal the Bill 124 decision is a lighthearted approach to the serious hospital patient and staff crises Ontario faces this holiday season and into the new year. A dire situation that the union says the PC government has taken no action to resolve.
“Hospital staff have told the PC government and MPP Fedeli that Bill 124 is gutting the morale of those on the health care front lines. So many of our co-workers are leaving their jobs as their real wages are cut by our MPP and this government,” says Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU).
Hospital workers in Ontario do not have the right to strike and the current patient and staffing crisis prevents them from taking time to protest outside their hospital workplaces or at Queen’s Park. In addition to a holiday card drop for MPPs and the Premier this week, hospital workers are wearing a sticker saying Bill 124 NO MORE as a visible sign of protest against the PC’s intention to appeal a law (Bill124) the court deems unconstitutional because it infringes on fundamental charter rights.
In November, CUPE, SEIU, ONA, OPSEU and Unifor, representing 295,000 Ontario health care staff, joined forces, issuing an SOS appeal to the Premier and health minister to adopt the unions’ solutions to stabilize Ontario’s crashing health care system and retain exhausted staff. The unions are committed to continuing joint actions in the New Year.
